


Postcards from the Galactic Edge

by sunbug1138



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Flashbacks, Force Visions, Fulcrum, Intrigue, Lots of plot, Marriage, Not so much angst in this one, Post-Canon, Redeemed Ben Solo, Tusken Raider, at least three plot lines that will converge, porgs, possibly what you might get if Georgette Heyer wrote in the Star Wars Universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-03-19 14:32:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 46,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13706421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunbug1138/pseuds/sunbug1138
Summary: It is a time of relative peace. Former foes have become firm allies and members of the former Resistance strive to bring stability to a once fractured Galaxy.Hoping to solve the riddle of how and whether to restore the Jedi Order Rey of Jakku and Ben Solo have retired to the desert world of Tatooine where secrets and destiny await them.Meanwhile the fledgling galactic government struggles with undercurrents of malcontent that threaten to disrupt the hard won respite from conflict…





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Art of Broken Pieces](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13060209) by [sakurazawa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakurazawa/pseuds/sakurazawa), [Sathya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sathya/pseuds/Sathya). 
  * Inspired by [After Dinner... Truffles?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13551648) by [sunbug1138](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunbug1138/pseuds/sunbug1138). 



It was late afternoon and the sun was starting to dip below the jungle canopy. The light reflecting back from Yavin cast a warm amber glow that filled Poe Dameron’s small private office. At one end of the stone lined room stood a cluttered desk, and a now cold half finished mug of khav, that had been abandoned to attend an unexpected meeting. The rest of the room was taken up by two comfortable couches; arranged facing each other for more informal discussions. 

Poe dropped down on to one of the couches, dislodging a throw cushion; his shoulders hunched. “Are you absolutely sure about this?” 

It had been another long day of meetings and missed meals in a long week of the same, and now this bombshell from two people he’d come to depend upon so much recently. He cared deeply for Rey and her happiness and he had developed a grudging respect for Ben which was threatening to turn into a slight testy form of affection.

“Very much so.” confirmed Ben firmly, but not without some regret. For his part, he had come to enjoy his time on Yavin IV and the recent work; feeling part of something again, putting his skills to use as a force for good. But it was time to move on; to move forward. “I, _we,_ feel it wouldn’t be appropriate.” He added.

“What do you mean by that?” returned Poe, rubbing the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stave off a recurrence of the headaches that had been plaguing him of late.

Ben sat down on the couch opposite Poe while Rey tossed a cushion aside and sat down beside Poe, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Let’s be serious here Dameron… Poe, no matter _what_ services I’ve performed on behalf of the Alliance or the Republic, it still does very little to stem the opinions held about me in certain quarters of the Senate. I am keenly aware that had the vote been opened up to all the members that my fate would likely have been very different.” Ben was measured and calm, a far cry from the man he’d been even just a year ago. 

“But there’s still so much you can do for us.” implored Poe. “You can rebuild the Jedi Order for a start”

“No!” Ben interjected forcefully. “We couldn’t and we shouldn’t”.

Poe looked to Rey to gauge her opinion. “The Jedi Order was fundamentally flawed, Poe.” She said, moving her hand to rest on his. “Luke was very adamant on that point. Its structure, practices, and dogma built up over millennia did nothing to prevent the rise of the Empire. The Republic’s reliance on it led to it rotting from within.”

Poe collapsed back on the sofa, he just couldn’t get his head around what they were telling him.

“But, we grew up hearing…”

“Stories, myths,” Ben shrugged. “They may have been powerful, but they were just people. Subject to the same failings as everyone else. And a new Jedi Order shouldn’t be relied upon to give legitimacy to the new government or prop it up when things get difficult.”

Poe sighed. It was true; all of it. On his desk sat at least three petitions from delegations asking for a retrial of Ben and as well as a particularly upsetting one which suggested there should be a trial of Rey herself on a charge of collaboration. He had no doubt he would be able to smooth things over with the aggrieved parties, some of whom he suspected were in fact angling for larger financial aid packages or more favourable trade agreements. If Ben and Rey were to remove themselves from public life for a time it would potentially make his job easier. Their presence could not be held over him or used as a stick with which to beat him politically. Things were just so much easier when dealing with something just meant jumping into a ship and blowing stuff up. Lately there had certainly been days when he would have loved to have done just that.

He gave a grim smile and squeezed Rey’s hand to show there were no heard feelings. “So what are you two going to do?”

Rey returned the gesture. “Get out of your hair. Get away, off planet. Just _be_ for a while. Figure out who we are, _what_ we are. I certainly don't think we are Jedi, at least not as it used to be defined. And then we'll see where to go from there. It won’t be forever.”

Poe exhaled deeply. He knew, in his heart, that everything they were saying made sense. They deserved the opportunity to make a fresh start, he had just assumed that it would be on Yavin IV with the rest of them. But for now, at least, their journey needed to follow a different path.

“Well, to be honest, I can’t say that having you two out of the picture for a while won’t make things a little easier here.” He looked towards Ben. ”You are right, there _are_ some Senators who still aren’t very happy about the vote and its outcome.” 

Unwilling to draw out a painful situation further, he stood up and offered Ben his hand. “I accept your decision but we will all miss you regardless.”

Ben hesitated momentarily and rising from the couch and firmly clasped the outstretched hand.

“We will miss you too.” said Rey draping her arms around the two men. “But we will keep in touch.”

“You’d better!” Poe released Ben’s hand and gave Rey a quick kiss on the cheek. Ben gave Poe a look as he pulled Rey into towards him. Poe responded with a slightly rueful grin.

“So, just where are you planning to go?”

“Tatooine,” Ben replied.

“Maz has been kind enough to sort things out for us there.” Explained Rey. “We felt it might be better if some one not directly associated with the Republic made the arrangements.”

Poe raised an eyebrow. “Back to there it all began?”

Ben nodded. “Yes, it’s also relatively out of the way. We can keep a low profile there.”

“There are still some details we need to sort out before leaving, however,” added Rey. “Ari’li has asked if she could join us, and as you are her legal guardian we’d like to request your permission for her to come with us.”

Ben took a deep breath, “we’d like to formally adopt her.” This announcement was clearly a surprise to Rey, but not an unwelcome one. It was rather a surprise to Ben as well; but he knew, even as he uttered the words, that it was right and something they would never regret. They might, all three of them, be somewhat broken in their own way, but together they were unbreakable whole. Rey’s face shone with joy. “Oh Ben, that’s a wonderful idea”.

“I can’t see any reason why not. I’ll miss her, she’s a great kid, but she’s very attached to the two of you. And I know she’ll keep Solo here in line. Anything else? Want to take a couple more off my hands?”

‘Well…” said Rey, shyly, her eyes fixed on Ben’s. “You could marry us. To each other.” She added hurriedly, indicting herself and Ben.

For the first time in days, Poe smiled a real, warm smile. “Gladly, and I would be very pleased to. If nothing else to soothe Finn’s delicate sensibilities. The fact the two of you have been gallivanting about the galaxy together for so long, unmarried, is just too much for him. Is there a set Jedi ceremony I should use? Or do you want the quick version I had to come up with for Rose and Finn?”

Ben looked rather sheepish. “There actually _isn’t_ a Jedi ceremony. It was forbidden for Jedi to have attachments… of any kind…”

It took Poe a moment to process this revelation. “You have got to be kidding me? Ok, I can see now why the Jedi Order needs an overhaul. But seriously they couldn't even…?” He leaned in towards Ben conspiratorially. Rey rolled her eyes, typical Poe. 

“Not even.” Ben knew better than to let Poe try to rile him into embarrassment. Given a choice between being a Jedi as they once were and being with Rey, he would choose Rey every time. It was better for the galaxy that way.

Poe still couldn’t quite wrap his head around the concept of a life with no attachments; a fate worse than death as far as he was concerned. If it were him, he would probably barely last a week as a Jedi. “That’s harsh. Okay, the quick version it will have to be then. When do you want to do this? And how?”

“We’d like to leave before the end of the week, so how are you set for the day after tomorrow?” suggested Rey.

“And small,” Ben added.

 

 

Two days later, just was the sun was rising, Ben and Rey stood together with their closest friends under the spreading branches of the Uneti tree. Looking at Rey, dressed in pale blossom spangled gown he had bought for her on Aurelia, Ben couldn’t quite believe this was really happening. The events that had led from their initial encounter to this moment spun together in his mind. Sensing  his slight hesitation Rey looked up at him fixing her shining eyes on his. _Don’t be afraid, I feel it too._ Those words had a very different meaning now, but perhaps it was the meaning intended all along.

Even though there was no breeze that morning, the tree seemed to sway as they took each other’s hands and recited their vows. Ben and Rey decided to take it as a blessing.

Afterwards, Rey laid the bunch of flowers Ari’li and Sarissa had picked for her at the base of Han and Leia’s memorial. She and Ben paused there for a moment there before rejoining the others and heading back to Poe’s estate. As they walked the sombre mood that had descended upon him while they had stood before the memorial began to lift and Ben halted suddenly and pulled Rey close and kissed her with a ferocity that quite took her breath away. They parted and Rey laughed. She took his face in her hands and kissed him back. Poe turned and was about to comment when Ben caught his eye. “Keep walking, Dameron!” He mock growled. Rose and Finn flanked Poe and almost frog marched him back to the house while Ben and Rey followed them arm in arm.

 


	2. Chapter 2

A’Yaran had set out from the camp sometime before the first sun began to rise. As soon as he was out of sight he exchanged his usual billowing outer cloak for a shorter tunic in a style similar to the one worn by the offworlders that would not impede him during the climb ahead. Experience had taught him that the wind had a habit of coiling up in his cloak with enough force to dislodge him from a cliff face. That lesson had been hard learnt and he had been lucky that he had managed to escape with just a sprained wrist and ankle, injuries he passed off as having being sustained dismounting poorly from his Bantha. Had they known of his activities, the elders would have muttered darkly among themselves and said it was warning from the spirits of the desert; dissuading him from a pointless endeavour. For his own part it simply meant that he needed to dress more appropriately to the task at hand. Cloaks were all very well and good when travelling in the open and exposed to the suns' harsh rays; scaling cliff faces required rather different apparel.   
****

He rolled the voluminous garment up tightly and tucked it into the satchel he wore slung cross his chest. Along side it he had stowed a canister of water, some rudimentary tools, a few pieces of flat bread and dried Bantha meat.

He headed out of the eastern section of the Waste where his clan had been based for an unprecedented fifty cycles and began the dull trek across the wide lull in the canyons towards the wilder peaks and passages to the west. Once there the hard work would begin. A winding path would take him up and northwards to the edge of the Jundland Waste where it met the Xelric Draw. Hopefully he would reach his destination just after sunrise. On a previous expedition he’d noticed some interesting striations and formations in the rock face but the day had been fading fast and he had had neither the light nor the time to investigate his findings closely. Morning would be the ideal time to do so, before the suns and moved too far along their arc; casting the spot into the shadows again.

He had been delayed in making this return trip for a few weeks. Preparations for the Krayt dragon hunt were ramping up. His tribe might be small and use certain offworlder tools and even have an old but still reliable vaporator but they were proud of their history and held fast to the old customs. In a week’s time, the sands permitting, he would head out into the Western Dune Sea to track and kill a Krayt Dragon. He would then be an adult and a fully fledged member of the tribe.

The air was still cool by the time A’Yaran had reached the sheer cliffs that heralded the second stage of his journey. He checked and tighten the straps on his satchel before reaching to find the familiar handhold and pulling himself up on to narrow ledge which twisted around between two spire like structures and a narrow passage which would take him most of the way towards the  cliffs overlooking the Xelric Draw.

 

After an hour’s exertion he was nearing his usual rest spot when he heard a noise overhead. He looked up to see a small ship approaching. This was completely unexpected. The offworlder population had been dwindling over the years and any that did arrive tended to keep close to the larger, established settlements. Very few now set up homesteads and those that did usually left within two cycles. The nearest settlement would be the Pika Oasis but it was small; Bestine or Mos Eisley both of which were further to the east were the places to which most gravitated. This ship, however, was flying low which suggested it might land. As far as A’Yaran knew the only place that might be of interest to anyone was the old hut. 

For as long as A’Yaran could remember it was instilled in them that the hut was to be given a wide berth. Even though no one had lived there since before he was born, it was a point on which the elders were particularly adamant. It was small and isolated;  located on the very edge of the waste, with a cruel, ragged drop on one side. Once it had been inhabited by possibly the only human offworlder the Eldest One had ever respected or even had time for. But he had disappeared suddenly one day without any notice, and had never returned. Even now, years later, no one from his tribe had ever ventured too close. No one apart from A’Yaran. He wasn’t one to be spooked by tales of ghosts or tormented spirits. His concerns were more tangible. He was as drawn to the stones and minerals of his world as his elders were to the movement of the Banthas. Besides, the hut was a useful place to rest and eat out of glare of the suns.

His curiosity got the better of him and hugging close to the canyon wall he edged his way around to get a better view of the ship. It hadn’t banked away towards the northern settlements. it was now hovering lower, and  indeed appeared to be preparing to land by the old hut. But the old hut wasn’t there anymore. It had been altered, it looked almost like another larger hut had been built around it. A spire of rock which had previously stood along side it was now gone. It had been sheared away to leave a flat surface on which the ship was now landing. A new vaporator had recently been installed nearby. Its metal casing was still smooth; before long it would be as sandblasted and pockmarked as any other piece of metal exposed to the elements. A hatch opened on the small ship and A’Yaran moved out of sight as quickly as he could without losing his footing. A curiously small figure, roughly the same height as a Jawa, emerged and began directing some droids in unloading crates. “Get a move on now, we haven’t much time to get this all finished up. They should be arriving later today.”

Startled at the prospect of offworlders settling so close he momentarily lost his footing, dislodging some gravel. The small stones sounded inordinately loud as they ricocheted off the narrow canyon walls below him. The short alien turned its head towards the source of the noise; its eyes were disconcertingly large and glassy. He wasn’t sure if it had seen him. But it then added to no one in particular but perhaps for his benefit. “But they won’t bother anyone, they intend to keep to themselves.”

The strange, glass-eyed alien then moved off and followed the droids into the hut. It was a few moments more before A’Yaran could move again. The expedition would have to wait. He needed to speak with the Elders, or at the very least, the Eldest.

 


	3. Chapter 3

There had been something disquieting about this planet that had made Ben uneasy even from the moment the Finaliser had first entered its orbit nearly five years previously. It was like waking from a dream he knew he had experienced so vividly but now that he was awake he was unable to recall it at all; it was a torment that had made his brain ache from exertion and longing. 

 

Then, he had been able quell the sensation; focusing instead on the task at hand, the confrontation with Lor Sen Takka, acquiring the map fragment. But later he felt the pull of the Light more strongly than he had in years. The shell that was Kylo Ren had developed its first cracks and Ben Solo threatened to awaken and emerge.

Standing here again on Jakku beside a decades-old fallen AT-AT he felt more strongly than ever that he had been here before; prior to the attack on Tuanul. 

While he was caught up trying to unravel the tangle in his mind, Rey and Ari’li had already clambered inside. Ari’li’s initial disappointment that they were visiting a desert world on a brief stopover to yet _another_ desert world had been overcome by a combination of being allowed to help co-pilot The Orphan and her insatiable curiosity about Rey’s past. Learning that Rey had had an inauspicious start in life, so like her own, had given her hope that she too would go on to do something great. At the moment her life’s ambition was to be a better pilot than Poe, beyond that it was anyone’s guess. Ben suspected galactic domination might have a part to play in it.

Looking around he spotted an old pilot’s helmet almost completely submerged in the sand. He gave it a tug and pulled it free, sand poured out of it like silk. Straightening up, he turned it over in his hands, it bore the insignia of an old Alliance squadron; the Tierfon Yellow Aces by the look of it. Suddenly, as if his head had been slammed into the side of the walker, his vision spun momentarily and then he saw Rey. Dressed as she had been when he first encountered her in the woods on Takodana, she was sitting on the sand. Her back against one of the walker’s feet. She was wearing the helmet and gazing off into the distance. He heard a droid’s wail-like bleeping coming from somewhere beyond the AT-AT’s hulk.

Stumbling backwards, he dropped the helmet as if it had burnt him. His head throbbed, something buried deep in his memories was trying to work its way to the surface. He suspected he would never have a moment’s peace on this planet until it did.

“Oh wow, that’s still here?” Rey had poked her head out of the hatch to see what was taking Ben so long. “You can put that on the _To Keep_ pile.” Ben looked up, he seemed disoriented. Her eyes narrowed, she could sense that something was bothering him. 

“Are you alright?” Perhaps coming back here wasn’t such a good idea after all, she thought to herself. This planet didn’t have particularly pleasant memories for either of them.

 “Yes, it’s fine. I’m fine. There’s stuff here you actually want to keep?” he asked incredulously, shaking his head. He smiled to himself, once a scavenger always a scavenger. He suspected Rey was something of a packrat, she was never willing to part with something that might come in handy… someday. Having some inkling of what was going through his mind she grinned, “Well so far it’s just that and this and a few odds and ends.” She waved the small piece of metal she had in her hand.

Ben squinted at the object, “what is it?”

“My favourite spatula! Okay, it’s my only spatula. Anyway, come on in. It’s no Aurelian Villa but it’s cosy.”

 Unwilling to touch the helmet again, Ben kicked it to one side and bent almost double to make his way through the hatch that now served as the entrance to Rey’s former home. It was pleasantly cool and dark inside. Ari’ll was curled up in a hammock fiddling with a cloth doll of some kind while rocking gently from side to side. He straightened up slowly, wary of hitting his head. As his eyes became accustomed to the dim light he saw that far wall was covered in row upon row of neat vertical lines. Moving towards it he reached out to touch them. A line for every day she’d spent here, alone; waiting for her family to return to her. He was overwhelmed by the feeling of loneliness that still hung in the air. Tears welled up in his eyes. How could she bear to come back here?

His response to the etches was so strong that it caught Rey off guard. She turned her attention from the small  tray-like box she had been placing things into and went over to him. Taking his hand in hers, _and now I’ve returned_ with _my family_ she reassured him through the force _._ Ben turned to face her, tears seemed to be welling up in his eyes, “I am so sorry Rey.”

She was taken aback by the magnitude of his reaction. He was not at fault _here_ ; her ne’er-do-well parents were. “Whatever for?” 

Ben gripped her hand tighter, as if afraid that she might be pulled away from him at a moment’s notice. “I’m not sure, but I feel like I let you down somehow, along time ago, before we met I mean.“ Not the other times _,_ he thought to himself bitterly. “It’s madness, I know, but there’s just something about this place.” 

Rey frowned slightly; she’d never thought of Jakku as having any particular significance. But then she’d thought the same about herself until Ben had tried to convince her otherwise, albeit in a rather graceless fashion. “What do you mean?”

Ben rubbed at his temples, “I don’t know! I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s like… like something out of a dream. A dream I can’t for the life of me remember!” An old feeling of emotions spiralling away from him threatened to overtake him. 

Rey hadn’t seen him so restless or unable to articulate his feelings in well over a year. Not since their brief stopover after leaving Aurelia when things between them had finally come to a head.

He dropped his hands to his side, fists clenching. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting his fists unclench as he exhaled.  

Calmer now he tried his explanation one more. 

”It’s a memory that’s just out of reach and it seems to slip away every time I try to grasp hold of it” Concerned, she pulled him closer to her. Reaching up to cup his face she brushed away his tears, and the hair from his eyes.

She held his face in her hands, her eyes fixed on his.

 “That’s all in the past now.” She said firmly before kissing him, to further make her point.

Ben willingly surrendered to her kiss, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer.  The cloud of confusion he had felt since they had landed was dissipated in an instant by its heat and intensity, and the feeling of uneasiness subsided to a faint, background hum he would be able to manage until they got off this gods-forsaken planet. 

A giggle, poorly stifled, reminded them of their audience and they broke apart, Ben blushing slightly. This was something they were going to have to be a bit more mindful of.

“Oh don’t mind me.” Ari’li grinned, sliding down from the hammock, a cheeky glint in her ruby red eyes. “Just let me get out before you two decided start doing anything else.” She placed the doll in the small box as she moved past and clambered out of the AT-AT.

“Remind me again whose idea it was to bring her along” Ben sighed, his eyes twinkling with amusement.

Rey smiled up at him, “Yours, dear heart.”

“There I go again with the bad life choices.” 

Rey made to hit him playfully with the supposed spatula. Ben took it from her and placed it in the box along with the other items she had collected. He caught sight of some dried flower sprigs laying discarded on the makeshift table, without thinking he picked them up and placed them in his pocket. He picked up the box. 

“Is this everything?” 

She looked around, it had been strange coming back to this place. She’d been so desperate to return all those years ago and now she strangely felt nothing. Instead, she was eager to get going again; the prospect of their destination excited her, even though it meant remaining in one place for a time. She was ready for the change of pace and a new undertaking.

“Yes, that’s everything. I did have an old Y-wing computer display and some data tapes but someone’s clearly taken it. Anything else I had of value would have been with my speeder but that will also be long gone; either to use or be broken up for scrap to trade.”

“Where did you leave it?”

“Niima Outpost, I did have to leave in rather a hurry.”

“Yes, of course.” Ben exited the walker and paused for Rey, holding his hand out to her. She took his hand as she ducked through the entry.

“But… I think it might be worth a brief stop there, I have some unfinished business to attend to there. But there’s something else I’d like to do first.”

They stood for a moment, blinking in the sunlight as their eyes grew accustomed to the glare after the comfortable dimness in the AT-AT.

Ari’li had picked up the discarded helmet and had put it on. It wobbled comically on her small head as she dashed towards The Orphan. Shielding his eyes, Ben was once again thankful he had not opted for the classic chrome finish on their H-type Nubian yacht, and had instead gone for a more sedate matte dark grey.

“Open up Artoo!” Ari’li called out as she neared the rear of ship. A moment later the hatch opened and the gangway began to lower. It had barely touched the ground before she had scrambled up on to it and run onboard, eager to snag the co-pilot’s seat.

Ben and Rey followed at a more sedate pace, her arm around his waist and head bumping slightly against the side of his arm as they walked. As Ben carried the small box of Rey’s belongings, he looked them over. Mementos of her former life; a battered metal cup and plate, the ersatz spatula and worn fabric doll. 

Rey released Ben as they reached the top of the ramp and dodging between packing crates hurried up to the cock-pit to make sure Ari’li hadn’t coerced her current partner in crime, R2, into helping her start the take off sequence before they were all safely aboard. Ben hit the hatch release and opened up a number of overhead bins in an effort to find some space to safely stow Rey’s things. He eventually found a nearly empty compartment. The ship was full to the brim with supplies, he didn’t recognise half of the crates. As he then made his way to the cock-pit to join the others, he wondered just how long it was going to take them to unpack, let alone find space for everything,

 

“That’s all stowed away now,” he said as he pushed a sleepy fat Porg out of the seat behind Rey and sat down. Lunch looked up at him balefully and then waddled off to find an alternative sleeping place. Ari’li strapped herself in as Rey readjusted the pilot’s seat. A smaller Porg was perched on Ari’li’s shoulder, nudging insistently at the helmet she was still wearing. 

“Stop it Spoon!” she complained, picking up the protesting creature and placing it on her lap. She  clasped it firmly but gently to prevent it from escaping. Rey turned to face Ben, there was a wild gleam in her eyes. “You might want to buckle up.” Curious, and with not a little trepidation, he shrugged himself into the seat’s straps.

Once they were airborne Rey piloted them away from her former home and headed out towards the starship graveyard. As they flew Ben took it upon himself to give Ari’Li something of a history lesson; covering the major events in the last battle between the New Republic and the Empire. He had read a lot about the battle when he was younger and had pestered friends of his parents’ who had fought in it for information the history holos invariably omitted. But it was nothing compared to seeing the aftermath in person.

As they skimmed over the remains of crashed X-Wings, Tie Fighters and ships so picked over that their model was now indiscernible; a larger mass came into view. Initially he took it to be part of the terrain; a large escarpment. Ben then realised it was the Executor class Dreadnaught,   Ravager. Nearly twenty kilometres in length it had been one of the largest ships in the Empire’s fleet. While not as large as the Supremacy, its sheer size and ultimate fate were still both awesome to behold.

Rey brought The Orphan about so that they were now approaching bow of The Ravager. She increased their speed and Ben shot a sidelong glance at her, her expression one he’d never seen before. The intensity he knew well, but there was an air recklessness that was very unlike her.

She brought the ship in low over the Destroyer and sped towards the stern. The Orphan cut through the air, steadily rising, following the line of the larger vessel. They had shot beyond the hulk when she pulled them into a sharp turn and slammed on the retro thrusters. “Rey!” There was a note of worried in Ben’s voice. His knuckles whitened as he gripped on to the arms of his seat. She could scare him sometimes, he was supposed to be the reckless one. Ari’li on the other hand couldn’t get enough of it she was cackling with delight. 

“What are you doing?” Ben almost yelled.  

She flashed him a wicked grin, and lining The Orphan with the back of the Star Destroyer shot into the decaying hulk. Ben’s eyes widened, then he squeezed them shut. He could hear Rey’s melodious laughter, Ari’li squeals of delight and Porgs squawking in excitement or terror, or both.

“Tell me when you are finished destroying my ship” He pleaded as the ship pitched from side to side. Even with his eyes closed as tightly as possible he could envision The Orphan passing through kilometres of engine outtakes and landing bays; barely scraping past duct work.

“Our ship” she replied through teeth gritted with concentration. 

Ben, sensing that they were about to exit larger ship opened his eyes. They sped out into the daylight and  Rey let out a whoop and punched the air. 

“Again!” Yelled Ari’li, jumping up and down in her seat clapping her hands, Spoon bounced off her lap with an affronted chirp.

Ben looked a bit green and mumbled, “Please no. Please don’t ever do that again!”

“Oh don’t be such an old woman. I’ve seen you pull similar manoeuvres.” Rey admonished him. ”I’ve wanted to do that again for years.”

Ben’s colour was starting to return to normal. “ _That_ was in space, not barrelling down the exhaust manifold of a starship. Just how often did you used to do that?”

“Only the once, but that was in the Falcon so it was a tighter fit.” Rey said with a laugh as she flicked on the autopilot.

Ben unstrapped himself, and reached over to undo the catch on Rey’s straps. “Right, your piloting privileges are revoked until you can fly like a sane person again.”

Ari’li gave him a look of distain. “What are you talking about, that was fantastic. Far better than Poe.”

“That’s as maybe, but I can’t afford to replace this ship.” Ben said firmly as he took Rey’s place in the pilot’s seat. Rey wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help myself”. Ben reached up and patted her hand. “I know and I love you for it. Niima Outpost then?” 

Ari’li looked confused.  “I thought we were going to Tatooine now?”

“Rey has something she needs to attend to first.” Ben explained as he made some adjustments to the navigation computer.

Ari’li turned towards Rey. “Oh, is it the junk dealer you told me about?”

Rey’s tone became suddenly serious. “Yes.”

Ben looked up at Rey, the rapid change in her demeanour concerned him. “What junk dealer?”

Rey hesitated, “The one my parents sold me to.” 

Ben’s mood darkened slightly, he hated himself for the way in which he’d first made her confront this aspect of her past. Hopefully now, once she had done what she needed to do, they could both finally put it behind them. He glanced at the navigational display. “We’re coming up on Niima Outpost now.”

 

 

Someone had rebuilt the archway next to Unkar Plutt’s scrap yard. There were a few small  ancient ships dotted about nearby, but nothing on the scale of the Falcon. She wondered what Plutt’s reaction would be on seeing The Orphan land. In any event it would probably bring him to them and she’d be spared having to seek him out. 

Sure enough, as they made ground fall she could see a large figure with a decidedly gelatinous quality hurrying towards the ship. Rey took a moment to focus herself. She knew exactly what she was going to do. She got up, turned and strode out of the cockpit. Ben and Ari’li exchanged glances and hurried after her.

Rey was already off the ship by the time they reached the gangway and was making her way towards the approaching Crolute.

Ben was momentarily taken aback; he was certain he’d seen this alien before. He halted and took a hold of Ari’li’s shoulder, drawing her back to him.  He could feel the Force pooling around Rey as she advanced on her former owner and suspected what she had in mind; it would be best she if didn’t have any distractions.

Plutt was now yelling at Rey and waving his arms; one of which was a crude prothesis. “What did you do with my ship, girl?” Rey calmly ignored his vigorous protestations. She walked right up to him and looked him straight in the eye.  “Unkar Plutt, you are a terrible person. You should treat your scavengers better, give them all full daily portions, _and_ pay them market rate.” Her voice was soothing but had a supernatural intensity that bordered on menacing. 

He stood stock still, his mouth dropped open. By the time he felt able to reply she had already turned away from him and was heading back to the ship. He shook his head as if to dislodge something from his brain. Overhead a handsome Nubian Yacht was steadily climbing into the sky. Feeling slightly dazed, he wandered back to his workshop, gathering his scavengers along his way, “Come along everyone, take a break you there, it’s time to eat.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks are due to Sathya and Sakurazawa for beta-reading this chapter for me.


	4. Chapter 4

It was just after nightfall over the barely habitable rocky landmass in the northern hemisphere when The Orphan dropped out of hyperspace near Tatooine. They had deliberately timed their journey so that their arrival would coincide with night-time so as to avoid too much attention from any curious locals. 

Ari’li had eventually become bored with the dull uneventfulness of hyperspace travel and had retreated to her small bunk off the cockpit with the two porgs and some snacks to read Antilles’ treatise on X-wing combat techniques which Poe had given her before she left. 

As a result Ben and Rey spent the majority of the trip alone with each other and their thoughts. Ben was silent as he often was when flying, but Rey could sense that this stillness was different, it was not born from losing himself in the light show that played outside the view-screen; something was bothering him.

She shifted slightly and rotated her seat a quarter turn. She hooked her foot out and turned his chair until he faced her. “Ben? What’s the matter? Please talk to me.”

He looked up, his dark brows were knit together in a frown. “I’m not sure.” His tone was soft.

Rey’s heart dropped momentarily as a thought struck her. “Are you reconsidering our decision to leave Yavin?”

He shook his head. “No, not at all! I’m honestly looking forward to it. It’s just this niggling feeling I’ve been having since Jakku.”

“If you say so. But it worries me. I worry about you Ben.”

“I know.”

If anyone could help him get to the bottom if this, she could. She always did. She believed in getting things out in the open, hashing things out. His family had a history of bottling things up and it always back-fired, resulting in them having enough emotional baggage to fill a space cruiser. It was a trait he shared but one he did not care to continue and was working hard to break.

He took her hands in his and took a deep breath. “When we were back on Jakku, and I picked up that old helmet of yours, I had a vision. I saw you.”

Rey looked concerned. “Me? Do you think it was the future? Was that why it disturbed you?”

Ben quickly sought to reassure her. “No, it was the past; that is unless you’re planning to leave me and move back to Jakku.” he teased in an attempt at levity.

“Now you _know_ that’s not going to happen; you’ll be the one moving out.” She laughed. “So what did you see?” 

“I saw you. You were wearing the helmet and sitting against the foot of the walker. And I heard a droid that sounded like BB-8.” 

Her eyes grew large.

“That would have been when I rescued him from Teedo. How curious. I wonder why that happened.”

Ben shrugged. “Perhaps it was a vergence in the Force.”

The term was unfamiliar to her. “A what?”

Ben took a moment to form a cogent explanation for a topic that had always struck him as slightly mind-bending.

“Sometimes the Force can pool around places or objects that have a special significance. The concentration of the Force can then cause visions when the object is touched or someone entered the place in question. I don’t think they were very well researched or understood. In any event the Empire destroyed so much information. The cave on Atch-To most likely was one. You said you were wearing the helmet when you heard BB-8. It was an event that changed everything for you, for me, for the galaxy even. It’s plausible that the Force concentrated around the helmet as a result. And I had a vision when I touched it, rather like an electric shock.” 

Rey sat back stunned. It sounded much like what happened when she’d first touched Luke’s lightsaber. Though she’d seen so many different things in _her_ vision. Things she’d still not told Ben about. It seemed like they were going to have a lot to talk about in the coming days. Thinking back she was sure she _had_ come across references to something similar in the texts she’d taken with her from Atch-To, but they had been called nexus points; no doubt the terminology had changed over time.

A ping from the navigational computer recalled their attention. Ben turned back to the ship’s controls while Rey double-checked the coordinates that Maz had supplied them and activated the transceiver. Ben brought the ship into an orbit that gave them a stunning view of the planet’s three moons. 

“It may be at the ass end of nowhere, but that is still an amazing sight!” He remarked.

 

Tatooine gradually grew to fill the cockpit's window. It was almost entirely featureless and desolate. Much of its surface was made up of salt flats, the remains of an ocean that had once covered nearly the entire planet, and massive swathes of sand. Not completely unlike Atch-To Rey though to herself. 

She sat back and surveyed the landscape as they dipped lower, the cockpit’s transparisteel window briefly flashing white hot as they lanced through the atmosphere. Night spread below them like a velvet cloak. There were only a few lights dotted about; power was a valuable commodity and not to be wasted at night when there were vaporators to power during their, potentially, most productive time.

They approached their destination from the south east. They were coming in over Mos Eisley, in the dark it looked like a small, sparkling jewel rather than an infamous den of inequity. Ben then banked sightly taking a north westerly route up into the highlands through a large expanse flanked by the Great Mesra Plateau on one side and the more hostile, chaotic terrain of the Jundland Wastes on the other. 

“This is Bestine coming up.” Ben remarked as they approached another cluster of lights, slowing the ship to a gentle pace. “It shouldn’t be too much further.” 

“It’s certainly rockier than I expected. Is that a crashed ship?”

Ben leaned forward for a better view, and then double checked the topological data scrolling past on the navigational screen. “Looks like it, yes. I think it’s been there for the better part of a century. It’s pretty much a major landmark around here.” The transceivers pings were growing more insistent and Ben pulled up sharply as they approached an outcropping at the edge of an area made up of tall crags and maze-like canyons. There were faint lights on it. 

Rey pointed, “that must be it.” 

Ben nodded, double checking the topographical data, he decided a vertical landing would be advisable. “I’ll give us a bit of height and then start the landing cycle.”

As they came in to land they had a good view of their new home. The building had been recently enlarged. Even in the faint ambient light from the ship the newer parts of the structure could be made out; the synstone being slightly darker than the older section that nestled in the centre. Over time it would lighten as it was bleached by the intense sunlight from Tatooine’s twin suns. Next to the house a landing platform had been sliced out of the side of the cliff on which a neat landspeeder was parked. Rey assumed that it must belong to Maz. Ben carefully lowered The Orphan in to place along side it. 

Once landed they looked at each other, both somewhat nervous. This was it, their first steps on a new adventure together. Out there was their new home, a home that was properly theirs. Even over the last year, as comfortable as The Orphan was in comparison to the Falcon, life had still been peripatetic.

To be settled in one place was something they had not given much thought. The concept was still difficult for them to get their heads around. They had both been on the move so much for the last few years, never knowing what kind of trouble they’d be heading into from day to day. Even when they returned to Yavin they knew it would only be a short time before another piece of intelligence sent them off again. 

Now they were at no one’s beck and call. Their lives were truly their own.

Ben finished shutting down the rest of the ship’s systems and stood up. He held his hand out to her. “Shall we?” Rey took it with a smile.

Artoo beeped questioningly at them. “Yes, you too Artoo,” laughed Rey, patting his dome as they exited the cock-pit.

Rey tapped on the door of Ari’li’s bunk and receiving no answer, hit the door release. Ari’li was fast asleep, data pad in one hand, and a porg snuggled close on either side of her.

“She so sweet when she’s asleep,” Rey remarked.

“But only slightly less dangerous.” Ben commented as he bent to pick up the sleeping child and got an elbow in the sternum. Ari’li mumbled something unintelligible as he shifted her weight slightly in his arms.

“Oof, she keeps getting bigger, and heavier.” 

“I believe that’s something children tend to do,” Rey laughed.

As they made their way towards the access hatch, Rey grabbed the large bag she had packed with a small selection of clothes and essentials and slung it across her chest. Her hands curled around the strap and tightened, needing to feel something real in a moment that otherwise seemed very unreal.

Artoo had gone ahead to open the hatch and lower the boarding ramp. At its foot a pair of neat lifter droids were waiting. The blue astromech warbled at them, and as soon as Ben and Rey had disembarked with Ari’li, they trundled up into the ship and began the task of unloading the larger of the storage crates and depositing them in the house’s basement.

They approached the house and Rey reached out and hit the door release. To her immense relief it slid open immediately. 

 

The door opened directly into the living area. While not overly large, it was spacious enough. The walls had been given a fresh coat of a white paint and everything felt bright and clean. On the floor there was a large monochrome woven rug in a bold geometric pattern. 

“Welcome Solos, or Duos perhaps Trios even!” laughed Maz Kanata as she made her way towards them from the far end of the room. She seemed to have been busy in the kitchen area and was wiping her hands on a towel. Catching sight of Ben’s slumbering burden, she nodded to towards a door immediately to his right. “The little one’s room is through there.”

Ben moved off to relieve himself of Ari’li and Maz advanced on Rey as she shrugged off her bag.

“My child I am so very pleased to see you again.” She declared taking her by the hand.

Rey crouched down and enveloped Maz in a hug. “And I you, Maz. I can’t begin to thank you for everything you’ve done for us here.” She stood up and looked about the room “It’s perfect.”

Ben reentered the room and moved to join them, putting his arm around Rey’s shoulders, “Yes, thank you.” 

“Not at all. It is my pleasure.” Maz, waved a hand dismissively and then turned her attention to Ben. ”And you young man! Come here and let me take a look at you.”

Without waiting for a reply, Maz took Ben firmly by the wrist and part dragged, part led him over to a large comfortable seat set into an alcove. Motioning for him to sit, she stood before him and took his chin in her hand. For a moment there was an uneasy silence as she subjected him to one of her signature long, hard stares. Rey could sense him tensing slightly, worried that the change he’d under gone in the decades since their last encounter would be too much for Maz.

After what felt like an age she spoke again. “Now those are the eyes of the sweet, mischievous little boy I remember.” Ben immediately relaxed at Maz’s pronouncement and the corners of his mouth twitched as he recalled certain happy childhood memories. She held her hand out to Rey. Grasping them both by the hand she looked towards Rey. “I’m so glad you were able to bring him back to us.” 

Rey smiled, tears welling up in her eyes. “And I thought you had meant Luke at the time.” 

“Perhaps, but _he_ hadn’t been taken, he had taken himself away. This one was the one who needed rescuing.”

She placed Rey’s hand in Ben’s and patted it. “Anyway, Let’s have something to drink I was just preparing some warm spiced wine when you arrived. Tell me all about your journey.”

 


	5. Chapter 5

Ben had moved over on the alcove seat to make room for Rey who had curled up beside him, her legs tucked under her. Now relaxed and settled in with drinks and biscuits provided by their erstwhile companion, Rey and Ben recounted their brief adventures on Jakku.

Maz nodded approvingly at Rey’s dealings with Unkar Plutt. She sensed, though, that Ben was holding back; something had happened while on Jakku that had unsettled him. Knowing that it would never do for it to be allowed to fester she gently tested the waters. “And you Ben? Any revelations?”

Ben’s brow furrowed slightly; for some one who claimed not to be Force sensitive, Maz was preternaturally perceptive. He wondered if she pointedly downplayed her abilities so as not to put people on their guard. Or maybe it was that she just knew him too well.

He glanced down at Rey who looked sleepy and was leaning her head against his arm. “I had a vision of Rey.” He said softly.

Maz appeared intrigued so Ben continued. “It was the past, we already discussed it on the way here. But that’s not what has been bothering me. I had the strongest feeling that I’d been there, on Jakku, before. Decades before. But I can’t remember anything about it.” He felt better after divulging this; just getting it out in the open seemed to help. He could feel the gentle reassuring touch of Rey’s mind reaching out to his.

“Interesting…” mused Maz, her eyes narrowing. “Do you remember the first time you came to visit Takodana?”

This seemed like an odd tangent to Ben. Even through a haze of tiredness Rey could sense his bewilderment.

“You were about six. Your father brought you. Your mother needed some time alone, or was busy trying to deal with squabbling senators.” That sounded about right to Ben, his mother was often having to deal with one crisis or another, and not all of them had had him at their centre.

The room had become chilly as the Tatooine night wore on and Rey reached out for a woollen throw that was laying nearby and pulled it over her lap. She settled herself back against Ben and tucked an arm around his.

Maz got up from her seat and adjusted the controls on a small stove that served as a room heater; slowly, the room began to return to a more comfortable temperature.

Ben nodded. “Vaguely, I don’t remember much about it.” He cast his mind back; it would have been nearly thirty years ago. Roughly when the Voice had begun to plague him and he’d started to become particularly unmanageable for his parents, and as he learned later, when Snoke first turned his attention towards him. At his recollection of Snoke Rey gave an involuntary shiver. 

Maz sat back down opposite them and continued her story. “You went playing in the woods to the west of the castle. It was hours before we found you, curled up a hollow in some tree roots, in tears and covered in mud. You were hysterical; you kept saying that there was a man in black chasing someone and that you had done something very bad. We couldn’t make out exactly what had happened. In the end you had to be sedated.”

Even though she felt heady with sleep, in her mind’s eye, Rey caught a glimpse of a small boy. His dark hair was tousled and caked with a mixture of mud, leaves and moss. He was curled up in a ball, shaking and sobbing. He looked up briefly and the dark eyes that momentarily met hers were wide with fear and shock. She’d seen those eyes before on Starkiller Base when she’d pushed back into Kylo Ren’s mind.

Ben went pale. He felt Rey jerk awake and grip his arm in reassurance. He had only a hazy fragmented recollection of the visit. He remembered arriving, running into the woods to play hide and seek with Chewie and then later gorging himself on exotic fruits and watching all manner of creatures get up to all manner of things while his father and Chewbacca had talked with Maz. Of what had happened in between he had no idea. He also remembered his mother hadn’t been too pleased about where they had gone. Her problem hadn’t been with Maz, more with her clientele: “It’s hardly the place to take a child! Next time why not just take him to Mos Eisley!” On hearing that  he had pestered his Father to tell him about Mos Eisley, since it sounded rather exciting, but to no avail.

Rey’s voice recalled him. “It sounds like it was another Vergence. It makes sense if it was in the vicinity of where we first met. It would be fair to say our emotions were somewhat heightened at the time.” 

Ben’s eyes met hers. “I think you are right. I could have experienced a vision of the future and not fully realising it was me, but still sensing that it was, if that makes sense. No wonder I was in bits. Force visions like that can be very traumatic if you aren’t fully prepared for them.” 

Maz nodded. “From what I’ve picked up over the centuries, from the various Jedi I’ve known, the Force is not just an energy field that exists between all things; it also exists across all of time. Between all events, and all possible events. But some of those ideas were considered highly controversial or implausible, and so weren’t fully investigated, or their research was discouraged. I often had the impression that general feeling in the Jedi Council was that if they didn’t think or talk about it, it wasn’t an issue.”

Ben sighed and rolled his eyes, that sounded like a reaction typical of the Jedi. Avoiding talking about a thing in the hopes that it would make it just go away. Asking ‘why’ seemed to often be frowned upon. In retrospect he couldn’t blame Luke too harshly; he had tried to form a training academy with good intentions, at the time not knowing the full history of the Jedi Order and so desperate to avoid the mistakes of the past, fearful even. And that had led to problems of its own. Desperation and fear had led to so many errors in judgement on his own part Ben thought sadly.

Ben had since had the benefit of access to what little information that had survived from the Jedi and Sith archives as Snoke had deigned to give him. Carefully selected of course.

“But it makes sense, how else would we be able to have visions of the past or possible futures if it were not for the Force existing between points in time. Though the thought of it does make my head ache.”

“I had come across something in one of the old texts that suggested that some Vergences can even alter the rate at which time flows.” Rey added.

“Indeed, A case in point would be how Luke spent a few weeks on Dagobah training with Yoda, while only a few days or so passed for your parents as they journeyed to Bespin after the Battle of Hoth. Even at sublight.” Maz added.

“No wonder that it’s something that need to be approached very carefully” Rey remarked, “You could lose yourself in an effect like that. And no one would have any idea where you had gone.”

Maz nodded. “As far are you two are concerned, I suspect the Force has been trying to get your attention for a very long time. Your meeting was, is, a significant event, something that had to happen. So you, Ben, experienced echoes of it when you were in the right place, albeit at the wrong time.”

Ben rubbed the back of his neck, “Well at least the Force approves of us being together, even though according to the Jedi Texts everything we’ve done since then is wrong, or forbidden!”

Maz threw up her hands in exasperation. “Pshaw! It’s all dogma, or even worse, misremembered snippets of dogma. Things can get horribly garbled over the course of one generation let alone a thousand.” She smiled broadly and shook an admonishing finger at him. “Don’t let what you read in those old books and fragments of parchment dictate your actions or lives. Most of the time you will probably find they contradict each other so there’s no point even trying to follow them to the letter. Read between the lines, look to each other for guidance and support. Look what following the Code led to in the past.”

Maz paused and chuckled to herself, as recollected events long past. ”Besides, I’ve lived long enough to tell you that the Jedi didn’t always comport themselves as they did when the Old Republic collapsed, believe me.” She winked at Rey. 

Ben blushed and Rey stifled a giggle, he was still so easily embarrassed in company.

“And those few who survived the Emperor’s Purge had to change with the times to survive in a new galaxy”. Maz added. 

She then stood and clapped her hands together. “Anyway, enough of that! It’s time for presents!”

Taken by surprise at this pronouncement, they looked at her questioningly, “Presents?”

It was Maz’s turn to look taken aback. “But of course! You two did just get married so it seems fitting to give you some gifts.”

She got up and went over and opened a transport crate that was sitting against one wall.

“Now this one isn’t from me.” She explained as she removed something from the crate. ”Finn and Rose had been doing some research and asked me if I could find something like this. It took a few months, I can tell you, but luckily, I have my contacts.”

Rey was taken aback. “But we’ve been barely married a week, how could they have asked you months ago?”

“I suppose they figured it was inevitable.” Maz smiled as she handed Rey an object wrapped in thick , soft fabric. 

She unwrapped it carefully, revealing a green glass vase. Its surface was covered with a relief of intermingling fish. “Oh it’s beautiful” breathed Rey as she ran her fingers over its surface. 

“They thought that something with a sea motif might appeal to you.”

Rey cast her mind back to after the Battle of Crait and sitting by Rose’s bunk on the Falcon as she recovered from her injuries. Rose had been compelled to stay as still as possible while her broken ribs healed and she’d been going stir crazy so Rey had kept her company. She had recounted every detail of Ahch-To island and its environs to her. She had been particularly amused by the Caretakers’ irritation with Rey. 

“I can’t believe you shot a hole in the wall!” Rose chuckled, then subsided in to amused grunts of pain. 

“Luke himself later destroyed an entire hut so I’m sure they were thrilled by that.” Rey had replied.

Keeping Rose company had helped take her mind off the events on the Supremacy; in her few quiet moments she had had a tendency to revisit her last encounter with Ben. Her last sight of him as she shut the hatch on the Falcon had prompted her to question her decision to leave him as she had. Should she have attempted to somehow drag his large, inert form to the shuttle? What would his reaction have been on being the abductee for a change? These had been questions that had plagued her for months.

Clearly Rose had remembered and recognised the awe and wonder Rey felt when talking about the island and ocean that had for so long seemingly only existed in her dreams.

“And green _is_ my favourite colour.” She turned to Ben holding the vase out to him. ”What do you think?” 

“It’s stunning. It’s Alderaanian isn’t it?” He said, taking it from her. 

Maz nodded, pleased at their reaction to the gift. “They thought it might be something you’d both like.”

“It’s perfect” he said as he ran a finger along one fish’s arched back. He was overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness behind the gift, not only was it perfect for Rey with her love of green and the imagined ocean that had been her solace during her years on Jakku, but it was Alderaanian as well, a world he never knew but still meant a great deal to him. Maybe some people were beginning to warm to him after all. He made a mental note to thank Finn and Rose in their next communication.

 

Artoo had finished overseeing the lifter droids in their task of unloading The Orphan and stowing away the various crates of supplies. He entered the house trailed by one bearing a transport crate, and directed the droid to leave it near the alcove. It gave a monotone beep of acknowledgement, deposited the crate and then departed.

Artoo warbled at Ben. “From Poe?” He carefully extricated himself from Rey and went over to the crate and opened it. Inside was a folded note and six large bottles. He opened the note and read the hastily scrawled message. He gave short laugh and handed the note to Rey. 

She smiled as she read it.

_“Dear Solos, enclosed are six bottles of that vintage we enjoyed over dinner what seems like a lifetime ago. Chef doesn’t know I’ve liberated it so if we never meet again, you know why.”_

Ben went into the kitchen area and hunted down some glasses. While he was engaged in this task Maz continued unpacking her transport crate. From it she produced a small old wooden chest with metal bands around it.

Rey eyed it warily; it looked suspiciously familiar. “Is that the same chest?” She asked.

“Yes, miraculously it managed to survive the attack on the castle. I thought you might like to have it.”

Rey looked faintly apprehensive; seeing the chest again briefly brought back the feeling of confusion and shock she had experienced when she had had first encountered the Vergence in the Force around Luke and Anakin’s lightsaber. She felt a pang of guilt that she had still not broached this subject with Ben, but there would be time to so yet.

“That’s a nice chest,” remarked Ben as he set three glasses down on the table and unstoppered one of the bottles of wine. “It would be ideal to store our lightsabers.”

Rey considered this, the symmetry was not lost on her. “Yes, I think you are right.”

Sensing that she was somewhat unsettled, Ben gave her a quizzical look as he poured out their drinks. 

“I’ll explain later” she whispered to him as he rejoined her. 

Maz opened the chest. She took out a smaller wooden box and a sheaf of paper which she handed to Ben. The box had a series of holes on the top and Ben opened it to reveal a collection of brushes in a variety of diameters, a small metal bowl and some vials of concentrated ink. There were also some sticks of charcoal.

“When you were much younger your mother had asked me to find an Alderaanian calligraphy set for you. I suspected that you might need a replacement so I tracked down another one. The brushes’ handles are a little less ornate than the previous set; but the bristles are better.” Ben took one of the brushes and held it in his hand, to his amazement and delight an old, long forgotten sense of calm returned as he did so.

Maz smiled knowingly to herself. She then took out a small bundle wrapped in tissue paper and handed it to Rey. She unwrapped it to reveal a long blue green ombre scarf of Nabooian silk. It was finely pleated which gave it a sensuous, fluid texture. Rey was entranced as it flowed through her fingers.

“I’m sure you’ll have some occasion to wear it” Maz observed.

They sat for a while more, drinking the wine Poe had sent while Maz recounted some anecdotes related to the rebuilding of her establishment on Takodana. Rey felt herself beginning to drift off to sleep, her eyes were feeling heavy and once or twice she felt like she was briefly free falling. She wasn’t sure if it was the wine or not. She didn’t think she had drunk very much of it; Ben had swiftly removed her glass and placed it somewhere the first time she nearly nodded off so that he didn’t end up with the drink in his lap.

Noticing Rey’s increasingly futile attempts to stay alert, Maz checked her chrono and exclaimed at the time. “My word, it’s past everyone’s bedtime.” She indicated a door a little way along from Ari’li’s room, “Your bedroom is through there. I’ll bunk down in here on the sofa.”

Ben stood first and helped Rey up, she graced him with one of her slight smiles that made his heart turn over. She collected the scarf and vase and made her way to the bedroom. She paused momentarily and came back and quickly bent down to give Maz a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you again for everything and our gifts, they are perfect.” 

Ben picked up the glasses and went to put them in the kitchen. He was about to follow Rey to their room when Maz checked him. Her voice was low, and he detected a hint of concern.

“Wait a moment please, Ben. I have something else for you. But I wasn’t sure if it was best to give it to you in front of Rey. Too many memories perhaps.” 

Ben crouched down before her, his heart thudding in his chest. She pulled a piece of folded paper from a pocket in her vest. 

“Your father gave this to me when I last saw him, just in case. He asked me to give it to you.” 

Ben extended his hand, and paused momentarily before he took the fold of paper from her. 

“Thank you” he mumbled. His last exchange with Han still haunted him. And as much as he missed him and wished he could speak with him again; he couldn’t bring himself to open and read what  he was certain was a note from him.

His father must have suspected that he might never return from the mission to infiltrate Starkiller Base, but somehow he never doubted that Ben would return. If it was indeed a letter from him it would have been written without the knowledge of why he didn’t return, and that was something Ben could not face.

Maz didn’t need to be Force sensitive to tell what Ben was thinking, the expression on his face told her everything. “Now, off you go to bed!” she commanded giving his knee a playful slap. ” It is very late and I need my beauty sleep!”

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter builds on the short scene presented in 
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/13551648/chapters/31104720


	6. Chapter 6

The cooler air in the bedroom revived Rey as she entered. The little stove in the living area was almost too efficient. More alert now, she placed the vase on the wooden chest of drawers that stood along one wall and the carefully folded scarf in one of the drawers.  

She then took in the bed. It was, by far, the largest one they’d ever shared. They had been used to sleeping tangled up in narrow bunks or beds intended for two sleepers of average height, even their bed on The Orphan was less than ideally sized. Ben had clearly given Maz specific instructions. This bed was at least as wide as Ben was tall and for a change he would not have to curl up so his feet would not be hanging off the end. At its head there was a vast array of pillows; from which she suspected she would spend a great deal of time in the future evicting unexpected and uninvited Porgs.

The door slid open and sensing the vanguard of sadness and guilt that spilt into the room she turned just as he entered.

She reached out to him and touched his arm, “Ben?”

“I’m alright. Just missing them.” he replied listlessly as he tossed the bag she brought in from The Orphan on to the bed.

She put her arms around his neck and kissed him. He bent his head and his eyes met hers. She knew it was a feeling that would never leave him, and nor should it. All she could do was love him and make sure he knew he was loved. “I know.” she said gently.

She released him and started rooting around in the bag and pulled out his old shirt that she wore to bed. She sat down on the end of the bed and began pulling off her boots. As she did so Ben moved around to his side of the bed and placed the folded paper on a small table by the bed. He hesitated and picked it up again. Unable to bring himself to open it, afraid of what it might say he resorted to turning it over in his fingers. A pillow hit him on the head bringing him out of his trance.

Rey had changed out of her clothes and had put on the shirt, and was preparing to throw another pillow at him. 

“What’s that?” she asked, nodding her head towards the paper in his hands.

It took him a moment before he was able to reply. “Something my father gave to Maz before he left for Starkiller base.” 

The pillow fell from her hands, now was not the time to be frivolous. If it was a note from his father there was no telling what it might say or what effect reading it might have on him, on them. He had been mostly silent on the matter of that fateful day since that one morning on Yavin a year previously.

“What does it say?” She asked softly.

“I don’t know, I haven’t read it yet.” Suddenly, he thrust it out towards her, his eyes meeting hers with an imploring look that never failed to move her. “Will you read it first, please.”

Just has he had done when Maz had offered it to him, Rey hesitated for a moment before she took the note from his hand. The paper was thick and smooth. It looked as if it had been kept folded up in a pocket or wallet for years, the creases were sharp as she slowly unfolded it. Ben watched her intently, his mind reaching out to hers to gauge her reaction. 

She stared at the paper blankly. It wasn’t a note from Han; just four lines of text. It took her a moment to make out the letters; it was written in an ornate hand that was much more stylised than the lettering she was used reading on data pads and terminal readouts. It looked like it had been written with deliberation and a fine brush.

She shook her head apologetically as she offered it back to him. “I can’t quite make it out, it looks like a poem or something.”

He frowned slightly, took the paper from her and sat down heavily on the edge of the bed, his shoulders slumping. Rey clambered up on the bed behind him, put her arms around his neck and lent her chin on his shoulder. As he read she could sense his mood change; from trepidation to realisation and then relief as if a great weight had suddenly been lifted from his soul. His back and shoulders straightened.

“It’s all fine now.” He said as he reached a hand up to grasp hers. Though she couldn’t see his face she could detect a faint smile in his voice, though his tone was more than tinged with sadness.

It was a moment before he spoke again but his voice was clearer and more certain now, the earlier hesitancy seemed to have evaporated as he had read whatever had been on the paper. 

“You remember how I once told you that I was never particularly good at meditating?” Rey nodded, and nuzzled her cheek against his. “When I was little my mother taught me how to do calligraphy. Her father, Bail Organa that is, had taught her. When _I_ was doing calligraphy I found could achieve a sense of peace and focus that was probably the next best thing. I never would set out with anything in mind to write. I would just lose myself in the activity and the next thing I’d know, I had a sheet of paper covered in words.” 

He paused for a moment, and turned to sit on the bed facing her, taking her hands in his. “As I grew older, around the time I suspect Snoke was trying to first influence me I found it harder and harder to do. This was the last thing I wrote before I was sent to join Luke. I thought it had been lost.” He didn’t need to say it aloud, because she knew it, it wasn’t the only thing he had thought he had lost.

He had considered his relationship with Han to have been irreparably damaged, but it hadn’t. His father had loved him, always had faith him. He’d kept this token of the son he knew and loved and hoped to see again. Even if he might never be able to speak with his father as he had with his mother he could still try and be the person his father had hoped was still there, even in that fatal moment. This memento was a reminder that his father had never really given up on him.

As she looked at the paper again, Rey found she could make out some of the words: fallen, hope and desert.

Ben continued “Maz was right, the Force was trying to reassure me or give me a sign to know you by. But at the time I was so consumed by fear and anger I couldn’t process the message and dismissed it.”

He shrugged, ”Of course, in retrospect it makes perfect sense. It always does.”  He gave the paper a wave. ” _This_ explains why I felt so uneasy on Jakku. I was wrong before in what I said to you on the Supremacy. You were always a part of the story. I was just too blind to see it.”

“I don’t quite understand” Rey admitted. 

He pointed at the paper as he took her through the text. “A sea of sand is the desert. The fallen behemoth is most likely the AT-AT you lived in.” Ben was right, it was so clear when you knew what the message was. She felt overcome at the implication of what he was reading to her. 

“The desert… bloom?” her voice caught slightly as she tried to make out the words through welling tears.

Ben put one hand in his pocket and pulled out intertwined sprigs of dried flowers he had picked up back in the AT-AT. He placed them on the bedside table. 

He took her face in his hands, his tone was unwavering, “And you were, and are, my ray of hope, and light. Always.”

The intensity in his voice overwhelmed her and tears were now streaming down her face. “Oh Ben!” she mumbled as he pulled her close to him.

“It’s ok, sweetheart.” He murmured as held her tightly, one hand stroking her hair while his other wrapped around her as he gently rocked her.

She sat for a while, content in his arms, contemplating the note and its implications. What might have been if he had come and found her years earlier in the desert, what might have been then? 

 

She imagined a younger Ben striding over the dunes towards her. His dark, earnest eyes as he explains that he’d come for her. ‘We’ve got to go now, my father is waiting for us.’ Taking his hand and dashing off to where the Falcon waits for them. Once on board she is enveloped in Chewbacca’s warm shaggy hug while Han leans against a bulkhead, an indulgent smile on his lips as he shakes his head in bemusement at his son’s crazy insistence that they come to this barren sand heap. 

“Alright kid, just make sure she makes herself useful and doesn’t get underfoot.” he says to Ben. 

“Oh I will, I mean I won’t” she says, her eyes shining.

They roam the galaxy taking on all kinds of crazy, slightly extralegal jobs: from hauling Rathtars to smuggling spice. Every once in a while they return to civilisation to spend time with Leia, providing her with a welcome break from politicking, where Rey enjoys being mothered. She and Ben grow closer over time. Eventually one day, when the age difference between them is negligible, while they are crammed in a engineering crawl space trying to tweak the hyperdrive before another attempt at breaking Han’s old Kessel Run record, they share their first kiss… probably after a fight — well a squabble, over the best way to integrate some piece of equipment.

 

Sensing her mind drift too far with thoughts of what might have been Ben felt compelled to bring her back to the here and now. Life was for living, not contemplating a past that had never been. He released her and picked up the pillow she had intended for him.

Her ruminations were suddenly and rudely interrupted by the impact of a pillow to the side of her head. She gave a short yelp of indignation and grasped a pillow of her own. For a few moments they lost themselves in a flurry of flying pillows, engaged in an activity they’d never had the opportunity to experience as children. Eventually they collapsed on the bed overcome with breathless laughter. Maybe it was out of character for them, but it had cut the tension and was a welcome diversion. 

Ben’s eyes twinkled, “So… Engineering crawl spaces?”

A rueful grin played across her lips as she ran her hand through the waves of dark hair at his temple, “Well you couldn’t easily get away from me in there.”

“What makes you think I’d want to get away from you” he responded.

“You didn’t want to appear easy?” She teased.

 

 

The next morning Rey awoke to a soft beam of light falling on her face from a window set into the ceiling. She lay there for a moment enjoying the unfamiliar sensation of not having to immediately jump out of bed and get ready for mission or a meeting. Ben, who usually woke early was still sleeping. He was curled on his side, turned away from her. 

Carefully, so as to not disturb him, she rolled over to face him. The light here was different from that on Yavin, perhaps it was the effect of two suns and a thinner layer of ozone or moisture in the air, but she could make out very faint pale lines all over Ben’s shoulders and back. They weren’t regular, but long and crazed, branching out like a multitude of lightening bolts. Tentatively she reached out a hand.

Outside their room she heard something clatter to the ground followed by a laugh. Ari’li was awake and by the sounds of things she and Maz were getting along like a house on fire. The faint aroma of warm bread wafted into the room. Rey’s stomach gave a grumble, reminding her that it had been a while since their last proper meal.

She nudged Ben with her foot and when that didn’t elicit a response she leaned over him, her nose nearly tickling his ear.

“Playing dead again?” She whispered.

Suddenly she found herself enveloped in a pair of strong arms. 

“I’m not dead yet.” He said as he pulled her close to him.

“I can tell.” She giggled. His lips found the particularly sensitive part of her neck and she felt her spine turn to jelly. “Ben! Ari’li and Maz are right outside in the kitchen!” She weakly protested.

“Who cares, I doubt very much that Maz does.”

Rey considered this. Maz was about a thousand years old and had certainly lived, and Ari’li had known even before they themselves had, how things were between them. 

 

 

It was nearly an hour later when Ben and Rey finally emerged. Rey had forgotten to put her hairbrush in the bag and she was slightly self-consciously trying to smooth her hair down. As per usual Ben seemed to get away with looking rather wild.

Maz gave them a knowing smile, while Ari’li just rolled her eyes and shook her head in amusement. “You know when I first met them they claimed they weren’t mates.” Ari’li said to Maz. Maz waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, that’s nothing. You should have seen what his parents were like.”

Rey poured herself and Ben some milk-like liquid with a pale blue tinge. Ben leant against the wall of the kitchen, looking somewhat bemused. Rey shot him a look, unsure of how he might react to hearing stories of his parents, he gave her a reassuring smile.

“Do enlighten us,” he remarked. In truth he was as curious as Rey and Ari’li as to how his parents, who had seemed at times to have been made to drive each other crazy, had ever ended up together.

Maz nodded. “Well I wasn’t there myself but Chewie told me all about it. He found it all very amusing. Not ten minutes after first meeting she made him jump into a trash compactor.”

“How romantic!” scoffed Ari’li.

“Well you never know what appeals to some people.” Maz pointed out.

Rey handed Ben his drink, “Just in case you were wondering, trash compactors are _not_ my thing. ” 

Taking the blue milk and sniffing it dubiously he replied. “I’m very glad to hear it. As it is they tend to get a little cramped. Even more so than engineering crawl spaces.”

During her time on Yavin Ari’li had got to know Chewbacca fairly well. While Ben and Rey had been away on their last series of missions she’d spent most of her time with him and Sarissa. However he was a far more reticent about telling them stories of his youth; talking about Han was still a difficult subject for him at times. 

“She called him a walking _what_?” That anyone could get away with calling Chewbacca a walking carpet with all their limbs intact spoke volumes. Not for the first time did Ari’li wish she’d met Ben’s mother.

Ben for his own part had never really given much thought to the specifics of how his parents had met. He had a general idea but it was usually presented as just a small part in the story of how his uncle had destroyed the Death Star. A footnote almost. Luke Skywalker had rescued the droids, the princess, blown up the Imperial super weapon and they all went home and got medals. Well, his father and Luke had received medals. As a boy this had annoyed him greatly; he couldn’t understand why Chewbacca whom he thought the world of hadn’t been similarly rewarded.

The actions of many others also seemed to be overlooked, such the Rogue One group, in favour of what seemed to be a tendency to focus on the Jedi aspect of the whole escapade. That bothered Ben. He had never played at being a Jedi as a boy. He had idolised his father and his piloting skills. When playing with his ships, he was a pilot.

As he grew older, the exploits of Cassian Andor, mysterious Fulcrum agent or Alexandr Kallus, the Imperial Defector fascinated him. He appreciated the grey and grit of their stories, they felt more real. Reconciling the figure of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight, a character that was already gaining mythic proportions in his own life time with the man he actually knew had been very difficult for Ben. And after that fateful night it he wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to. He still couldn’t reconcile the Jedi ideal he uncle had espoused with the man who had even if for a moment, had considered murdering him in his sleep. He understood now that it had been a moment of weakness, and the gods knew he himself had fallen prey to those. But he would never dream of calling himself a Jedi, even now. 

“…as far as everyone was concerned Han was going to take the money and run. He had even asked Luke to join him but Luke refused.”

Ben looked up suddenly. “He did _what_?” The shock of hearing these words caused him to nearly spill his drink.

“Luke refused.” repeated Maz.

Ben put his drink down. “No, before that. My father left them _before_ the battle?” This was something he hadn’t been aware of before. 

“He did indeed. The Alliance paid him what Kenobi had promised for their passage to Alderaan and your father left. It had bothered Luke a great deal, he admonished him for turning his back on them and not staying behind to help.”

This sounded far too familiar for comfort. Too much like the exchange between himself and Rey in throne room on the Supremacy.

Ben was having a hard time getting his head around this new revelation. “But if he left, then how, _why_ did he get a medal?”

“He came back.” Maz said simply, her eyes boring in to his.

“He fired on Vader’s ship, which allowed Luke to fire the photon torpedos which destroyed the Death Star.

“I never knew about that.” Ben said, there was so much they had not told him.

They withdrew from the kitchen and sat around the table in the living area, on which Ari’li had laid out a selection of fruit and the freshly baked bread. Rey tore at her slice and savoured it, it was warm and springy and had a flavour no ration pack could ever replicate.

Maz continued her various tales of the aloof princess and the scoundrel.

“They were wildly in love but your mother was always a bit more reserved I think It was her way of coping after Alderaan. She threw herself in to her work. Your father was slightly more open. He very much wore his heart on his sleeve in his own fashion. He worried a great deal about her. Worried that she was working herself to death and forgetting about herself.” “But they just enjoyed sparring and needling each other. The thrill of the chase” She chuckled to herself.

Arto let out a long warble, adding some details of his own to the story.

Ben looked faintly ill, “Oh my god, she did what? Just to annoy my father?”

Ari’li and Rey exchanged amused glances and tried not to laugh.

“To be fair now, she didn’t know that Luke was her brother at the time.” Maz reassured him.

My family is even more messed up than I realised, Ben thought to himself. “No, but still, that’s just wrong.” he said aloud. “She must have, well, felt something, sensed something.” Artoo bubbled over with beeps and blips “She did - she felt she wanted to put your father in his place.” 

Ari’li observed that it sounded like Han and Leia sparred almost continuously but that Ben and Rey never seemed to. Ben looked up and met Rey’s eyes. “I suppose we managed to get all of our pent up anger and resentment out of the way fairly early on in our relationship.”

Ari’li raised a quizzical eyebrow; she’d never really given much thought to Ben and Rey’s dealings with each other prior to their arrival on Artas. Grown-ups just were what they were.

Ben continued, a wry smile played across his lips as he cast his mind back to that fateful day when everything had changed. “My mother may have made my father jump into a trash compactor but within a few hours of meeting Rey she had bested me in a lightsaber duel and given me this scar.” He said indicating the long thin line that ran down his face from just above his right eye and continued down his cheek to his collar bone.

“To be fair you also had a nasty wound from where Chewie had shot you.” Rey pointed out. "So you weren't exactly fighting fit."

She leaned over and quickly grabbed the last piece of bread just as Ben was reaching for it. His slight cough of annoyance was met with a grin. _First my lightsaber now my food._

 _Scavanger rules, if you hesitate…_ Rey tore the bread in half and handed one piece to Ben.

"Even so, you still fought very well. You were, are a natural." He said as accepted the bread.

Ari’li was both impressed and shocked at these revelations. 

Artoo beeped an enquiry. Ben snorted and he turned to address the little droid. “I was lying in the snow, bleeding out with a lightsaber wound across my face, shoulder, and arm, and you _really_ think that would have been worse?”

Artoo gave a series of sad beeps.

“Well that was just mean. I don’t think you look like a glob of grease nor are your innards busted.” Rey said soothingly. “And no, not a single time did I ever call him scruffy looking,” she added in reply to his original query.

“The first time I saw him, properly, without the mask, it was a shock. He looked like a damn angel. I was so annoyed about it.” 

Ben nearly choked on his bread trying not to laugh at her mock indignant tone. “Sorry.” he eventually managed.

“No you weren’t. I remember the look on your face.” She retorted, her eyes narrowing.

Rey carried on; time and intervening events had done much to wear away much of the anger she felt over her abduction, leaving only the more absurd aspects that she still wondered about in idle moments. “I’ve been wondering for years, did you go and do your hair while I was passed out and stuck in that damn contraption?”

Ari’li’s head snapped from Rey to Ben, as he self-consciously ran a hand through the thick, dark hair in question.

“Would it make you any happier to know that I didn’t. That I just sat and watched you until you woke up?” He asked.

“I’m not so sure it would.” Rey replied before taking a bite from her bread. She fixed him with an appraising stare as she ate. Before treating him to a particularly disarming smile.

He was not going to add, out loud, that he had played out, or at least tried to, an entire conversation with her in his head while he waited for her revive.  Or that the part of him that had been Kylo Ren had spent some of the time wondering why he had brought the girl back with him rather than just getting the damn droid. That had been Ben’s work of course but he hadn’t known it at the time.

Maz silently observed the easy repartee between the young couple, how they were able to recall the past without rancour, from time to time smiling and nodding. Once or twice her head would tilt slightly as if she were flanked by some other, unseen, observers who were commenting to her on how things were playing out.

 

They continued to eat and the conversation turned towards more immediate concerns, such as which towns were best avoided by an erstwhile Jedi and Supreme Leader looking to do some grocery shopping and other mundane errands. 

“The general store at the Pika Oasis is the closest. I’d avoid Bestine, it’s the nominal capital so you run a greater chance being recognised there.” Maz advised them.

”Anchorhead to the south west is another possible place for stocking up on provisions, spare parts that kind of thing. The people there seem to have turned ignoring galactic events into an art form.” She didn’t add that it was the closet township to the location of the Lars Homestead where Luke had grown up. There were something things they had to discover for themselves in their own time, or when the Force willed it.

“I’ll leave the speeder with you. It’s not a particularly new model so shouldn’t attract much attention and you’ll need it for getting around. You can drop me and the droids back to Bestine. My ship is berthed at a discrete docking bay on the settlement’s outskirts” 

 

Rey elected to stay behind and finish unloading the last few things from The Orphan. With Ben, Maz and her droids in the speeder there wasn’t much room left for two more people. Ari’li decided to remain as well. She would have liked to have seen a bit more of her new home in the daylight but expected there would be plenty of opportunities to do so in the future and felt it wouldn’t be fair to leave Rey on her own.

Ari’li helped Ben and Rey clear away the breakfast things while Maz packed her bed roll in to her transport crate. 

After she and Rey waved them off they went and fetched the porgs who had been rather annoyed at having been locked in the ship overnight, while Ari’li recounted some of the highlights of the stories Maz had told her before Rey and Ben had joined them for breakfast.

“… and then they flew into a cave on a large asteroid! But it wasn’t a cave really!” Ari’li’s voice rose in excitement as she attempted to capture the porgs. 

Rey beamed at the girl’s enthusiasm. “What was it?” 

“A giant space slug’s mouth! Oh damn.” she added as Spoon flopped out of her arms.

Rey gave a shudder, such things were myths, surely. Tales made up by spacers to either scare of impress naive planet dwellers. Then again not too many years ago she had thought the Jedi were a myth.

Ari’li scooped up the porgs again and carried them in the house and deposited them on the alcove seat. Lunch settled down into the cushions with a chirp of approval. Spoon, on the other hand, immediately hopped down and wandered off towards the kitchen squawking indignantly, no doubt homing in on a cache of utensils from which to select a new weapon. 

Ari’li and Rey then returned to the ship to collect the last few things they’d need. While Ari’li gathered her things from her bunk, and shoved them into her small holdall bag, Rey retrieved the last of her and Ben’s personal effects from their quarters. There wasn’t very much left. Most of their clothing had  already been packed up in a small crate. Her hairbrush was laying on the bed where she’d left it along with their lightsabers. 

She opened the crate and tossed them inside on top of the pile of clothes. She pushed the lid closed and engaged the crate’s repulsers allowing her to push it ahead of her out of the ship. 

Ari’li met her by the main hatch at the aft of the ship and flung herself on top of the crate and rode it down the boarding ramp; falling off on to the hard ground when it reached the bottom and jerked to a stop as it ran out of momentum. She bounced back up, her sand smudged face a picture of mischievousness. “I’m really looking forward to living here, it’s so wild and interesting.” She declared as she brushed herself off.

“It’s certainly got a lot more going for it than Jakku or Artas.” Rey agreed. Life here should be good, she thought to herself. Not as easy as on Yavin to be sure. But she suspected that both she and Ben would have eventually grown bored with the relative luxury and chafe at the expectations that would have come with living there. 

Nor would it be as unrelentingly arduous as life had been on Jakku; literally scratching a living that could by no means be described as living, just existing to the next meal. Instead they had found a happy medium between the two and a respite from the excitement and adventure that had been the dominant feature of the last year and a half.

Ari’li pushed the crate into the house and went into her room to unpack her bag. Rey saw that she had already made her bed; the cover was replaced neatly, folded crisply over the mattress. She watched for a moment as the Chiss girl took out her data pads and neatly arranged them on the desk and then pulled out the few items of clothes she had in the bag and carefully refolded them and put them away in the chest of drawers that stood by the door. 

As Ari’li reached up to put the old X-Wing pilot helmet on top of the unit Rey noticed that her trousers were already looking a bit short on her. She made a mental note that they might need to replenish her wardrobe sooner than expected, especially if she was undergoing a growth spurt. She was also going to have to do some research on Chiss development; Ari’li might look like she was about eight standard years old but she behaved like she was much older.

Rey recalled herself and pushed her crate into the bedroom. The bed was a disaster area, the covers were in disarray and there were pillows all over the place. She was positive it hadn’t looked this bad when they had left it to join the others for breakfast. She moved closer and sure enough she could make out some feathers between the few pillows left on the bed. She prodded experimentally at one and was rewarded with some muffled squawks. As she had predicted the Porgs had invaded. She decided would let them be for a bit while she unpacked to make up for a night spent on a cold star ship.

Returning to the crate, she opened it and removed the lightsabers. For a moment she just stood were she was, inspecting them. They had been repaired and modified respectively by their owners over the last five years not unlike herself and Ben. No, that wasn’t quite right. She never felt like she owned her lightsaber, not that Ben had ever tried to lay claim to it again. She felt she was merely its keeper; in time it would pass to another. 

She wasn’t sure where she should put them. They weren’t exactly something she wanted to leave just lying around. And trying to remain incognito meant wearing them was out of the question. Recollecting Ben’s suggestion from the previous evening - or was it earlier this morning - she put them down and went into the living area to fetch the chest Maz had left for them. 

The last time she’d opened it her whole life had been turned upside down and inside out. Why was she so nervous of this old chest? It was the lightsaber that had set off the visions, and she had held it plenty of times since. She girded herself and threw open the lid and firmly deposited the sabres inside. “There!” She said to them admonishingly, almost daring them to spark a vision or misbehave like two spoilt Porgs. Nothing happened. They looked so ridiculously prosaic laying there together, two finely tooled weapons in a centuries old rough wooden chest.

She chuckled to herself at the absurdity of it all as she placed the chest on top of the unit beside the vase from Finn and Rose.

“What’s so funny?” enquired Ari’li as she barrelled into the room and catapulted herself on to the bed.

“Watch out, “ Rey warned, ”the porgs are in there… somewhere,”

Ari’li edged herself away from the affronted mound of pillows. She leaned over and picked Rey’s nightshirt off the floor and tossed it to her. “You are so messy!” 

Rey blushed slightly as she caught the projectile and folded it “I was distracted.”

Seeing her adoptive mother turn pink with embarrassment never ceased to amuse Ari’li and she flung herself back on the bed and giggled. Lunch and Spoon emerged from their pillow barricade and jumped on her causing her to further convulse with laughter.

Rey smiled to herself as she continued to unpack while joyous pandemonium reigned around her. Yes, life here was indeed going to be good.

 


	7. Chapter 7

Rose was relishing her day off. She loved her work, it kept her busy, but it was also good to take a break every once and a while. She was now managing a pool of three maintenance teams as well as helping to train up new techs. Sometimes she was even able to find some time to work on some personal projects such as improving her engine bafflers. 

But as much as she enjoyed her new role there were also times when she needed to just slip away behind some pipes and perform some basic percussive maintenance on a particularly troublesome piece of equipment, whether it needed it or not. She often resorted to this when something bothered her or she was trying to work out a solution to some other, unrelated, problem in her head.

Still, there was nothing quite like an afternoon spent on the terrace by the lake, luxuriating in the feel of the warm breeze on her face. Beside her Paige was toddling back and forth stacking some colourful wooden bricks Poe had given her. The colours were sun-faded and Rose suspected they had been his as a child. Sarissa also sat with them, engrossed in making a complicated plait of fine leather strips. 

A group of children were playing on the grass nearby; sparring with some brooms and mops liberated from one of the estate’s many store cupboards. They were attempting to follow some of the forms they had badgered Rey and Ben into teaching them before they decamped to Tatooine. Every now and again one of them would break off to double check their stance against the images they had taken and had stored on a data pad.

“This… this is what it was all for,” Rose thought to herself as she took in the scene, a smile played on her lips. There was a bittersweet edge to her contentment; she wished her sister could have been here. Little Paige’s namesake would have loved it here on Yavin IV. They could have had their farm and raised Porgs.

Rose glanced at her chrono, and made a face. Soon she would have to break up this idyll and get ready for another official dinner, but not quite yet. She closed her eyes and immersed herself in the sounds of her surroundings: the laughter of children, the slap of bare feet on warm stone and the rhythmic notes of wood against wood. It seemed like time was gradually slowing down and she was able to capture a perfect moment to hold on to for an eternity.

 

Her reverie was abruptly shattered by the sudden, violent sound of a door banging open. She  sat up and looked sharply towards the source of the noise. 

A small knot of children spilled out of the open doorway; almost tripping over one another in their haste to escape. They headed full tilt towards the edge of the jungle while their leader tossed bread rolls to his compatriots. In their wake followed a figure clad in white waving a large ladle.

“…will be hearing about this, you little sneak thieves!” The much put upon and aggrieved chef yelled after them.

Rose quickly turned away towards her daughter, keen to avoid attracting his attention and receiving a dressing down in the childrens’ stead. They were not her responsibly but that wouldn’t have mattered. With the evening’s dinner to prepare for they had chosen a poor time to aggravate the chef.

The chef gathered his breath and stomped back through the door, muttering darkly under his breath. The door slammed shut and Rose let out a tense breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding.

Sarissa growled a remark.

“Oh, I don’t really blame them. At least they are taking care of them and are trying to keep them off the estate.” replied Rose. ”But if there are any around, I _don’t_ want to know,” she added with a grin. Plausible deniability was key when dealing with the chef, and Poe.

“Poe may be softhearted and, where the children are concerned, a pushover, but he really can’t abide those creatures.” 

Sarissa chuckled and wuffled a remark under her breath as her clever fingers adjusted the tension on a portion of her work.

Well, yes, Rose agreed to herself, he could abide when them, very much, when they were spit roasted; but it wouldn’t do to tell the children that.

Paige’s interest in building towers had run its course and she toddled over to her mother and held up her arms so she could be lifted up on to Rose’s lap. She nestled down on her mother’s chest and was soon dozing.

 

Rose wasn’t sure if she was about to nod off herself or if she had indeed drifted off to sleep when she heard a discrete cough to one side. An officer’s aide had approached while her attention had been otherwise engaged. The young woman was holding a data pad and looked slightly rueful for disturbing her.

“I’m sorry to bother you ma’am but we’ve just received a communique for you. Your husband thought you’d like to see it immediately.”

Rose sat bolt upright, dislodging Paige who let out a muffled, annoyed grunt. “There’s nothing wrong is there?”

“No, not at all,” the other assured her.

Rose took the proffered pad and, seeing the details of the message’s sender, visibly relaxed. It was marked has having been dispatched by Maz Kanata; only three other people besides Rose knew that she was relaying messages from Rey and Ben. 

“Finally,” she muttered under her breath.  A little louder, for the woman’s benefit she added, “Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome,” returned the aide before striding off back in the direction of the administration complex. Sarissa barked an enquiry. 

“Yes, it’s from Rey,” replied Rose, settling back down and repositioning Paige to read.

 

_Dear Rose,_

_I’m so sorry that it’s taken so long for me to get this message to you…_

 

The alarm Rose had set on her chrono chose that exact moment to start pinging. Typical, she sighed and reluctantly switched off the pad. 

“It’s time to go in my darlings,” she said apologetically as she eased herself and Paige out of the chair. She placed Paige down on the terrace and the little girl rubbed her eyes. Even after the briefest of naps Paige seemed to be back to full power and she started zooming about the terrace. 

“Imma Ship!” she declared as she dashed around, her small arms flung out. Rose watched her for a moment. Her baby wasn’t a baby any more; as she became more active she was beginning to  loose her baby fat. She seemed to be growing like a Jungle Creeper and had a surprising reach; it felt like everyday she and Finn were having to move what few precious breakables they owned on to higher and higher surfaces.

Rose caught her daughter on another pass and spun her in the air. “So you are, but let’s pick up your cargo first before we fly back home.”

Paige giggled, and nodded. “Oh kaay!” she said in a particularly emphatic way was all her own and never failed to amuse her parents.

Rose laughed and placed her back on the ground and together with Sarissa they gathered up Paige’s toys into a drawstring bag before they made their way back into the main building.

Once they reached Rose and Finn’s apartment Sarissa took Paige into her room to help her get ready for bed. She and Chewie had offered to be on baby sitting duty while Finn and Rose joined Poe at the dinner that evening.

Rose went in to the bedroom she and Finn shared and was confronted by a stack of boxes and a data pad on the bed.

She placed the data pad with the message from Rey on her bedside table picked up the other pad and cast an eye over it. 

It had been left by Connix and provided her with a run down of the evening’s dinner guests. 

 

Poe had made it a policy to dine privately with each of the senatorial delegations. It sounded exhausting to Rose. But he seemed to thrive on it. Not all the dinners were wholly unpleasant. affairs; some Senators were more easy going than others and were happy to enjoy a friendly, informal meal and share small talk, chat about their respective home worlds things of that nature. 

Certain others were sticklers for protocol and even worse tried to turn the meals into opportunities to lobby for back room deals. This was something Poe detested and would shut down immediately. He wanted use these dinners as opportunity to try and get the measure of the other Senators, something he felt he desperately needed as he hadn’t come from a political background and hadn’t spent his youth working for a senator or lobbying. Wheeling and dealing did not come naturally to him.

This evening he was hosting the Senator representing the Arkanis sector. During the New Republic  their representative had been noted Centrists. Rose considered them fair-weather friends, allying themselves with the power du jour. They had done extremely well under the New Republic but still extolled certain virtues of the Empire; namely highly a centralised power base and a strong military. Perhaps they thought that pushing again for a strong military would appeal to Poe.

There were rumours that some of their number had been involved in the early support and bankrolling of the First Order. But with the destruction of the Hosnian system most of the information or people who could have confirmed that had been lost. 

While Finn often attended the meals, Rose only did so occasionally at Connix’s behest.

Kaydel Ko Connix was to all intents and purposes simply the head of the communications division; in charge of ensuring that messages were relayed to their recipients and that communications channels with the various sectors were intact, making sure that satellites were maintained, run of the mill, unglamorous, routine tasks that were the essential grease that kept the government running smoothly. 

But she was so much more than that. She was known to be particularly astute and had been mentored from a young age by General Organa herself; her own mother having been a contemporary of Leia’s who had, by very good fortune, been off world on Dulathia at the time of Alderaan’s destruction. At Poe’s request, and unbeknownst to all but a very select few, she had reactivated the Alliance’s old Fulcrum network and coordinated a highly secure and secret communications network in parallel with the public network. Some of the network consisted of intelligence operatives spread across the galaxy, who had assisted Ben and Rey over the course of the last year. Some of it was made up of operatives on Yavin IV, a number of whom would have been most unlikely to be taken as spies; people like Rose Tico. 

Rose was the perfect operative for the task at hand. Rose was good at disarming people and sizing them up. The kinds of people she was assigned to observe always seemed to dismiss her as just a mechanic, or just a wife. Her staring or silence was assumed to be due to her awe; not at all surprising given that she was a girl from a dingy mining backwater who had suddenly found herself thrust into the splendour that came with being associated with the Senatorial class. 

Rose she found she enjoyed the subterfuge. Ever since their exploits on Canto Bight, Rose had itched to continue to stick it to that class of people who seemed to weather the galactic conflict as if it were nothing more than a very minor inconvenience to themselves, or worse treat is as something to be stoked and manipulated to line their pockets, or consolidate their power. And Finn had happily played along.

As she cast her eye over Kaydel’s missive and brought herself up to speed on Arkanis, its position and brief history she formed the opinion that tonight’s guests were very definitely of that ilk. 

The Arkanis sector incorporated parts of the Outer Rim where the planets’ populations lived in relative to abject poverty but its central system of Arkanis proper was extremely wealthy. Its senators had happily supported whichever galactic government was in power, Old Republic, Empire, New Republic, First Order. Fair weather friends indeed; They always seemed to turn with the wind, very readily so. Poe and Connix didn’t trust them. General Organa had had run ins with previous representatives back when she was a Senator in the New Republic and she had very good reasons to suspect that they had been supporting the First Order since its infancy. Clearly Connix felt that that support had never wavered and was still possibly still ongoing. 

Was Arkanis readying itself to make a push to draw the old Populist versus Centrist lines again, judging the fledging galactic government’s current state to be precarious enough to push in the desired direction simply to avoid a breakdown in government or all out civil war?

 

Its Senator, Charn Arnndis, was from an old family, numbered among some of the oldest and most senior, on Arkanis. His wife was from a less exalted family but had brought a great of wealth to their union. They had no children. The Senator’s niece, the middle child of his late sister, travelled with them in the role of a companion to his wife. There was also the usual assortment of secretaries and handmaidens none of whom Rose expected would be attending the meal.

This was not going to be a relaxing evening at all. Even if she were not doing the kind of physical work she was used to; making small talk or even listening politely while spoken at was going to be exhausting. 

She gazed longing at the data pad with the message from Rey. How she would love to just spend the evening at home curled up on the sofa with a nice mug of cocoa reading about whatever adventures Rey, Ben and Ari’li had had in the last few weeks. 

It felt like a lifetime since they had left. Somehow it seemed they had been longer than when Rey and Ben were away for months on end dealing with First Order loose ends.

Perhaps it was because the apartment felt so quiet without Ari’li. Rose loved Sarissa dearly; she was very restful, but sometimes it was nice to have the cobwebs shook out by Ari’li and her mad exploits.

She turned back to the task at hand, Rey’s message would have to wait until later when she would very much deserve a reward.

Rose went to the closet and extracted her dress for the evening along with Finn’s suit. She hung them on a hook by the door and quickly shrugged out of the wrap dress she saved for her days off and went to have a quick shower.

When she emerged, Finn still hadn’t returned yet from his last meeting of the day. She checked her chrono where she’d left it by the bed and shrugged. These afternoon meetings seemed to be running later and later recently.

She dressed quickly. It was a simple dress, with lots of light voluminous pale grey fabric that was cinched in at the waist, and forgiving of a figure that hadn’t weathered pregnancy very well. The downside to being short was that the stomach muscles took the brunt of carrying a baby especially one as big has Paige had been, and they were slow to recover. Still, it didn’t bother her particularly, she had a beautiful, thriving little girl to show for it. 

Once dressed she turned her attention to the boxes sitting on the bed. It seemed like every other day boxes were being dropped off; gifts from various parties hoping she or Finn might use their influence with Poe. Without fail she would send them back to the central sorting depot along with a declaration form and their contents would then be divvied out among the rest of the staff on the base. She already had a nice dress, and she didn’t need any more. So many of them who had made it off of Crait had nothing besides the clothes they stood up in.

One box caught Rose’s eye though. She recognised it as being similar to the one unloaded from the Falcon when Rey had first returned with Ben. It bore the logo of the Aurelian couturier and some time Fulcrum contact Invigio. This one she would keep.

She opened it to to reveal a dusky pink half cape, made of a velvety fabric that she just couldn’t help but run her hands over.  There was nothing beyond a perfunctory note in Invigio's flourishing hand: “For The Flower of the Republic.” 

She smiled and swirled the cape around her shoulders, it went perfectly with her grey dress, which was not to be unexpected as it was another one of his creations, purchased on a trip to Aurelia when they had first made contact with him.

She turned slightly to check herself in the mirror to see how it fell at the back and gave a squeak as something jabbed her shoulder. She removed the cape and turned it over to investigate. Stuck in the seam of the lining was a needle and thread. That some apprentice must have overlooked it was her first thought as she pulled it out. It was unknotted. A thought struck her. She looked more closely at the thread. Why would a pale pink cape be sewn with black and white thread? She opened the small, rarely used, safe in the closet. She placed the needle and thread inside and shut it. She was just keying in the security code when she heard the door to their apartment open and Finn dashed in. 

“Sorry! Sorry!” he called apologetically as he entered. He wrestled himself out of his jacket and tossed it on the bed. “I swear they are just making up things to be annoyed about.”  He opened the closet “Where is my suit?”

He turned towards Rose, he followed her indulgent gaze towards the suit hung up beside the open closet.

“Oh” he said with a sheepish laugh. 

“Wow, you look fantastic” he breathed, taking in the radiant, albeit slightly non-plussed, vision before him. His suit forgotten he moved towards her and pulled her into a tight embrace and kissed her soundly.

Rose let out a squeak of mock outrage, and half-heartedly wriggled out of his arms, “We are going to be late.”

”I thought you hated going to these things.” he said, reluctantly releasing her. She awarded him with a a peck on the cheek before starting to brush her hair.

“I do, but I’m mostly there for the food and people watching. Remember, I’m a wide-eyed girl from a galactic backwater.” She said with a wink, Finn gave a knowing nod and smiled. 

His talent lay in organising people, devising plans, delegating tasks. He’d been good at it when he was a Stormtrooper. When he felt in control of a situation he was easy going and good natured. 

When he had first defected and fallen in with the Resistance he had floundered. Removed from the regimen he had flourished in, he had had difficulty adjusting and finding a new role. He didn’t consider that he had truly joined the Resistance until Canto Bight when Rose made him realise that there were times when he couldn’t keep putting any one particular person before everyone else, not his friends and not his wife. Or at least that what she had told him. Where Paige was concerted however, all that could go out the window. 

When he had considered the needs of the Resistance and later Republic as a whole, and had come to the realisation his particular friends were included that number, and stopped worrying and just focused on the task at hand he felt much more assured in his abilities. His training provided by some of the First Order’s finest stood him in good stead and he was now passing on what he had learnt to new recruits, though his delivery differed from Phasma’s. He had to admit that she’d been a good commander; consistent and thorough, though still a dreadful person.

Finally ready, he and Rose stopped off in Paige’s room to say good night. She was curled up on Chewie’s lap while he sang her a sort of lullaby. If you could call it singing, Finn thought, it sounded like a friendly purring growl. 

“We’re heading out now, you can get us on the comm if anything comes up,” Finn said as he gently stoked the back of his small daughter’s head.

A muffled noise that sounded like “Night Papa” travelled straight to his heart and lodged there.

Chewie softly barked a reply.

“Anything.” Finn repeated with pointed emphasis as Rose pulled him from the room.

“Come on, we’ve got work to do.” She gently admonished. She knew he wished he could spend more time with Paige. Tensions in the Senate felt like they were reaching a head. However tomorrow was the start of a recess period and the Senate would not be sitting for two months. While he would still have work to do concerning the day to day business of government and working with the  new guard recruits, he would have some more free time to spend with Paige over the next few months.

 

They opened the door to their apartment to leave and found Poe poised to hit the door chime.

“Ah! Perfect timing, as always.” He said flashing his trademark grin, charming as ever, though Rose thought she detected a hint of tenseness; his voice seemed a little strained. It felt to her as if he was over doing it ever so slightly. 

Finn had mentioned to her that Poe had been suffering from intermittent headaches that had made it difficult for him to concentrate. Rose wondered if the strain of being Senate Leader was getting to him. It wasn’t a role that had come easily to him; it required him to exercise a degree of control over his emotions and responses to certain situations that ran counter to his hot headed nature. 

Not for the first time had she wished that General Organa were still with them. She had been a calming influence on Poe. Nor had she ever had any qualms about rapping his knuckles, either literally or figuratively when he needed it. Rose wondered if Leia’s experiences with a young Ben had given her that ability, it was a melancholy thought. That Leia had seen in Poe an echo of her own wilful son;  and had been trying to do right by _him_ at least. 

She remembered how, when on the Falcon just after the Battle of Crait, as she lay recovering on a bunk, she had woken up briefly and overheard Leia and Rey talking. Everyone else had found some place to bunk down and were sleeping but Leia and Rey were still awake; almost huddled together. Rey was dejected, the pieces of a broken lightsaber sitting in her limp hands. Leia as always was full of hope. Rey on the other hand seemed as broken as the weapon in her lap. For a while they said nothing. Then Rey had taken a deep breath and turned to Leia, “Please, tell me about Ben.” 

Rose had tried not to overhear. But she couldn’t help it. From the tone in Rey’s voice she knew that she cared deeply for this Ben, whoever he was. 

Through a muffling haze of painkillers she managed to discern that this Ben was Leia’s son.

Leia had told Rey how he’d loved to fly ever since he was a small boy. But that over time something had disturbed him, something he couldn’t explain to his parents. They had mistakenly thought it was his Force abilities that were bothering him. And that sending him to train with his uncle would be the solution. Too late did they learn that he was being manipulated, tormented by Snoke. 

It was Rey’s unhappy duty to elaborate on this point based on what she had learnt; that he had been used by Snoke to draw out and destroy Luke.

Rose managed to not let out a gasp realising that this Ben and Kylo Ren were one and the same person. The General must be utterly heartbroken at the recent turn of events. How she had managed to bear it Rose couldn’t even begin to imagine.

“We should have told him about our parents sooner. But we were afraid. We didn’t know how to broach the subject with him. We didn’t even really have the full story ourselves.”

“And it would have meant facing our own traumas again that we had never really faced, not properly. We’d pushed them away and pushed on with the task at hand. Luke never even confided in me what had really spurred him to leaving with Obi-Wan Kenobi.” 

She gave a short mirthless laugh, “A hologram of a pretty girl is a rather lame excuse. There had to be more.”

What more they discussed Rose never knew, exhaustion had reclaimed her and she fell into a deep sleep that lasted for well over a day. But she never forgot that Rey’s first thought was of Ben and how to understand him. To Rose’s great joy her friend’s dogged pursuit of him had ultimately been successful, though to her great sorrow not in time to reunite him with his mother. She wasn’t sure if Rey had ever confided in Leia the truth surrounding Ben’s fall, how it had been precipitated by Luke’s albeit brief attempt on his life. Something that Rey had only told in Rose one evening not long after Crait when she seemed to be at her lowest ebb.

 

Vara was waiting with Poe, she too, seemed on edge. Her dark hair, so often worn up and under a flight helmet, was swept back from her face and hung down her back. She wore a very simple midnight blue gown. She wasn’t really one for dressing up. She truly was there for the food, and to support Poe.

Poe and Finn took the lead while Vara hung back for a moment to admire Rose’s cape.

“That’s beautiful, is it new?” She asked as she too, instinctively reached out to stroke its pile. “Oh wow, that feels amazing.” Vara breathed. “A far cry from the sacks we wear everyday.”

Rose laughed.

“It looks well on you.” Vara added.

“Thanks, you’ve scrubbed up well too.” Rose teased as she took Vara’s arm. Neither of them were one for ‘girl’ clothes. A nice comfortable flight suit, with lots of pockets, was more to their taste.

Vara grinned and leaned towards Rose conspiratorially, “I keep feeling like I’ve still got grease on my face or something.” 

“Well that’s what you get for starting to strip down an engine less than an hour before an important engagement,” Poe pointed out.

“You! You were the one who suggested it!” Vara shot back indignantly.

Poe halted and turned to face her. He took her chin in one hand and tipped her face first one way and then another as he inspected it. “You are fine; smudge free!” He declared.

”And personally, I like the smell of engine grease.”  He added giving her a quick kiss on the forehead.

Vara stuck her tongue out at him. They were about to resume their walk to the dining room when  their attention was arrested by the sound of approaching metal mincing steps. 

They turned as one to observe C3PO hurrying towards them, arms raised.

“Ah Senator! I’m so glad I found you!” The golden droid said as he reached them.

Poe sighed, “What is it Threepio, we are in rather a hurry."

“I’m very sorry to detain you, Senator, but General Hugs has asked me to relay an urgent message to you.”

“Hugs?” Rose mouthed, her brows raised.

Poe looked a little guilty, but also rather pleased with himself. “Yeah, I may have specifically told Threepio to call him that. I figured it would drive him nuts.” 

He turned his attention back to the protocol droid, “What were you to tell me?”

Threepio continued. “He wishes to voice his displeasure over at the sleeping arrangements.”

“What? Why?  He was supplied with a softer mattress, as requested.”

“Yes, but it also seems that the bed itself has been altered and he says he can feel the slats through the mattress. It is most uncomfortable and he is unable to sleep.”

Poe pursed his lips but his eyes sparkled with amusement. “Oh dear, how dreadful. Anything else?”

Threepio carried on. “He also states that he requested that his bread not have _any_ seeds in it, but that the loaf supplied with today’s lunch had even more seeds than on previous occasions.”

Poe smiled apologetically. “Tell our guest that I’m terribly sorry and I will take matters up with the chef.”

Threepio hesitated for a moment, determining whether it was worth voicing his suspicion that all of these issues had been deliberately orchestrated in order to irk their prisoner. He decided it was a point not worth raising; The former First Order leader was trying even his own patience, a quality he had never considered himself possessing. Instead the droid retreated in the direction from which he had come; formulating a highly polite yet devastating response to deliver to General Hugs as he did so.

The foursome continued on their way and, once out range of the protocol droid’s audio-receptors, Rose could not help but laugh. “I can’t believe you’ve got Threepio acting as his intermediary.” 

Poe ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. “It was ideal really, it keeps Threepio busy and out of my hair, with the added bonus that I’m sure he drives Hux up the wall. Anyone else would have been compelled to put a fist through his face after half a day of dealing with him. I can’t believe Ben put up with him for so long.”

Finn shook his head. “He served a purpose; he was driven and so, useful to Snoke. Besides it  was well known that he and Ben, even as Kylo Ren, could not stand each other. Then again, no one _liked_ Hux. The stormtroopers thought he was a blow-hard and the older officers who were subordinate to him utterly despised him.” He paused for a moment. “No, I take that back, Phasma perhaps went as far as tolerating him.”

“Wow, high praise indeed.” replied Poe.

They turned a corner and found themselves at the doors to the dining room. Poe checked his chrono, they were only running about five minutes late. Which wasn’t bad considering the meeting that had held himself and Finn up had over run by about three quarters of an hour. He rolled his shoulders and straightened himself and his jacket before signalling to the guards waiting at the doors to open them. He strode in before the rest of the party with a twinkle in his eyes and smile on his face.

 


	8. Chapter 8

Poe took a deep breath, and pushed open the doors. Like a switch had been flipped; suddenly he was relaxed and smiling, not a whisper of exhaustion nor tenseness remained.

The heavy wooden doors swung open to reveal the spacious room used for entertaining. The walls and floors were stone but heavy, rich hued wall hangings and rugs made it feel comfortable and inviting. There was a large highly polished table made of local wood at one end of the room, with places laid for seven. The other end of the room, by the doors was left uncluttered to allow guests to mingle prior to sitting down to dine.

The two aides on waiting duty visibly relaxed when Poe Dameron and his companions entered. The Senator from Arkanis had been pleasant enough but his wife had started audibly complaining to her female companion some five minutes earlier even though they had themselves arrived fifteen minutes early. 

After a slight nod from Poe and one of them slid away to inform the chef that they would be sitting down to eat with in the next ten minutes. The other advanced and offered drinks to the newcomers.

“So sorry for the delay. No rest for the wicked,” he said brightly, accompanied by one of his roguish grins, especially intended to disarm. Hanging back with Vara until presented, Rose mustered all the effort she could to not roll her eyes.

“Not at all, not at all” replied the Senator, as he advanced towards them and firmly shook Poe’s hand. He was a large, florid man who had clearly been enjoying the epicurean perks of his role for many years. Rose put him at roughly sixty. 

“We almost had to wait,” his wife muttered under her breath. In contrast to her husband she was a thin, sharp featured woman. She wore a heavily beaded pale dress that Rose figured must weigh nearly as much as she did. Her straw coloured hair was piled up on her head in a series of stacked buns and covered in gemstones. It reminded Rose of a cake she’d seen on Aurelia. Catching Rose staring at her, she pursed her lips disapprovingly. 

“I heard you’d be held up in another committee meeting again. Those tentacled miscreants causing trouble again?” Senator Arinndis boomed at Poe and Finn, in a manner he seemed to think came across as jovial. Only those who knew Poe very well would have noticed him stiffen momentarily. Xenophobia, thinly veiled or otherwise, was abhorrent to him. 

Rapidly recomposing himself, Poe good-naturedly rebuffed the elder man’s insinuations. “No, not at all, the honourable representative for Ryloth was, as always, a paragon of pragmatism and patience. In fact it was one of your own juniors who seemed to have forgotten that certain items of business had been agreed and settled upon by yourself in session not a few days ago.” 

“Oh you know young men; always eager to prove themselves. Perhaps a little too eager!” The Senator laughed.

Poe raised a hand as if to wave off the subject ”But this is neither the time or the place for such discussions.” His point made he moved to greet the Senator’s stern wife who had been standing apart from them with her companion and seemed to be subtly sniffing the air.

She leant towards her companion and in a poorly concealed whisper asked, “Do you smell… machinery?” 

As Poe approached she instantly became all smiles, an expression that was perhaps even more terrifying than her scowl. Even if he was a jumped up pilot with delusions of grandeur, he was after, all the current leader of the senate and a handsome young man. 

Poe turned slightly and motioned towards Finn and Rose who stepped forward.

“May I present Rose Tico and her husband Finn.” The Senator leaned in and Rose turned her head in time to receive the whiskery kiss on her cheek. 

The Senator chuckled jovially, amused at what he perceived to be the young woman’s unworldliness. He offered his hand to Finn, “Ah the valiant defector!  What a charming wife you have.” Finn bristled slightly as he shook the Senator’s hand his hand a little too firmly, but the older man remained oblivious.

Poe motioned to Vara and introduced her. “And this is Captain Vara Morell, who has most graciously agreed to chaperone me this evening,” he added with a twinkle. Vara endured Arinndis’ attentions as best she could, thinking instead of the meal that lay in her future.

The senator then in turn introduced his party. “May I present my wife, Lady Karrine and my niece Dorah Valarian.” 

Poe took Lady Arinndis’ hand and gave her a dazzling smile as he lightly kissed the back of her hand. He repeated the same greeting with Miss Valarian. The senator’s niece smiled and laughed nervously. Lady Karrine meanwhile maintained her stoney facade as Rose and Vara performed their best curtsies. 

She cast an appraising glance over Rose, her lip twitching about one nostril as she suppressed sneer. 

“I understand you have children,” she suddenly stated without any preamble or pretext of politeness. Rose felt her hackles rising and she struggled to retain her composure.

“Yes ma’am, a daughter.” Rose replied as impassively as possible.

“So you devote all your energies to being a mother then?” 

Rose wasn’t entirely sure how to take that remark; was it a compliment or was she being admonished somehow? 

“Oh no! Not at all” Vara effused. “Rose manages a number of our maintenance teams, and is involved in research and development.”

Lady Karrine failed to contain her sneer any longer and looked like she had just stepped in manure, assuming she even knew what that was. Well at least that was cleared up, her observation had probably as near to as complimentary as she was capable of about someone like Rose.

“So _you_ are the mechanic _._ Then _you_ must be the pilot.” Her tone was a pointed as the over manicured, talon-like nail she pointed at each of them in turn. Rose couldn’t help but stare at it. It was covered in a lacquer that probably contained real gold leaf. Clearly she had been briefed on them beforehand, but hadn’t bothered pay enough attention so as to be able to put names to occupations.

Vara and Rose exchanged looks. Obviously they did not conform to the roles a senator’s wife associated with nice young ladies; then again perhaps having jobs at all lowered them in her opinion. Rose suspected that their having been former _Rebel Scum_ was the real issue here; Arkanis hadn’t exactly been known for their condemnation of the actions of the First Order. At the time it was so as to not 'ruffle feathers’, to quote the Senator now drinking heavily while trying to bend Poe’s ear.

Lady Karrine sighed. “I suppose it could be worse. My husband’s eldest niece ran off to the Outer Rim to dig in the dirt. Such a disappointment, such a waste.” She shook her elegantly coiffured head.

Dorah mindlessly echoed this sentiment, adding that her older sister, Corah had been such a _ravishing_ girl and so _very_ popular. But terribly stubborn. Try as they might to disparage the absent Corah and her seemingly mad desire to pursue her studies and then have a career, both Rose and Vara heartily wished that _she_ had been here to converse with instead. She sounded like someone they might have liked.

“At least though, for a pilot and a mechanic you two seem to know how to turn yourselves out well.” The woman was utterly brazen. How Vara would have liked to have come right out and say that, for all her finery. she had the manners and looks of a mangy womp-rat,

If appearances were so important to this woman then Vara knew exactly how to strike; she went in for the kill. “Oh yes, In fact Rose’s gown is by Invigio, perhaps you’ve heard of him.” She said as artlessly as possible.

Lady Arinndis’s mouth fell open and then snapped shut, her eyes flashing momentarily in annoyance. In all her long years visiting Aurelia and patronising the very finest of its establishments, she’d never been able to prevail upon Invigio to dress her.

 _Right on target_ , Vara thought to herself, a small smile playing her lips.

The older woman’s eyes took on a steely glint as she took Vara’s measure. “Then again, his work is becoming so commonplace now…” she opined offhandedly to the sycophantic Dorah who nodded vigourously. “oh indeed Aunt” The other added shaking her head sadly.

Vara felt all her patience ebbing away and her fists began to clench. No decent meal was worth this, but protocol required her to show this woman deference. She would have much rather spent the evening alone with Poe. Just the two of them with some military rations and a pilfered bottle of wine, forgetting all the cares that came with his new role in government. 

She couldn’t believe she actually missed the days when they were on the run from the First Order. Enjoying stolen moments with some rot-gut brewed by the flight techs in an illicit still cobbled together from who knows what spare parts. While they both had other lovers, he was the one she actually _loved._ Though she was too proud to admit it, to him at least and she had only come to that realisation herself recently as she turned down other offers in order to sit through dinners like these just to spend time with him.

Rose laid a hand on Vara’s arm; partly in warning, partly in solidarity. This woman reminded her of the denizens of Canto Bight and Aurelia. So self involved, with backwards notions, and so very ignorant of what life was like for the other 99% of the galaxy. Or worse she was one of those who were very well aware of the situation and felt that that was just the natural order of things. Like those who had nominally overseen the mining operations on Hays Minor had happily taken the First Order’s money and then promptly left, leaving the rest of the population to be worked to death or worse.

A potential brawl was averted at this juncture with the arrival of a number of aides bearing the first course. Vara allowed Rose to move her towards the table, and as her proximity to the Senator’s wife decreased she began to relax a little.

At Poe’s urging they all took their seats at the large table. He sat at the head of the table with Finn on his right and the senator to his left.  Rose sat next to Finn and Vara next to her. Opposite to them the Senator’s niece sat between her uncle and aunt.

Bowls of soup were laid before each diner in turn. Vara closed her eyes and inhaled the glorious aroma; chef had outdone himself again. She took up her spoon and was about to make a start when Rose gently elbowed her; she looked up to a surprising sight.

Previously unnoticed by either of them, Lady Arinndis’s handmaiden halted one of the aides before he could lay a bowl before her mistress. She was a drab creature clad in simple, tailored grey dress. Taking a small spoon she had secreted about her person she took a dainty sip of the soup before indicating that he could set it down. She then retreated from the table and hovered unobtrusively nearby, ready to attend to her mistress or answer a summons. As the meal continued she would carefully check each dish before it was set before Lady Arinndis.

Not for the first time did Vara and Rose exchange glances. They thought the Senator’s wife a ghastly creature but to suppose that anyone here might attempt to poison her? Perhaps she had other, more unscrupulous, enemies than they had realised. 

The senator’s wife grumbled at the break in protocol of having soup without any accompanying bread rolls. Recalling the incident earlier in the day Rose had to stifle a laugh. The older woman shot her a dirty look. “There was a time when protocol was strictly adhered to.” She snapped.

“Oh yes, I do love a good roll” simpered Dorah.

With an opening like that Vara simply couldn’t help herself, “Who doesn’t?” she said with a wink at Rose. Poe catching the remark and recognising Vara’s playful tone nearly choked on his wine as he attempted to hide a very indecorous bark of laughter. Dorah then innocently launched in to a description of the wide array of bread rolls served at Arkanis’ functions, while her aunt, perfectly understanding Vara, just glared. 

The evening wore on and Vara concentrated on her food, studiously attempting to ignore the steady stream of remarks from the other side of the table. They were, for the most part, infuriatingly inane and seemed to be of little consequence; being made solely for the purpose of having Dorah to agree with her.

While the Senator gorged himself on stuffed roast fowl that looked suspiciously Porg-like, and his wife prodded hers with a fork, Dorah took advantage of her aunt’s silence to engage Poe in conversation.

“I have to say Senator Dameron, I just _adore_ the gardens around the estate. The flowers are _simply_ divine and the jungle! It so wild and unkempt looking.”

Internally Poe rolled his eyes. Did this woman honestly think that the jungle was man-made and had been manipulated by gardeners to achieve that level of wildness? 

He had grown up on Yavin IV and he knew very well that the bucolic veneer in the immediate environs of the Great Temple and surrounding ancillary structures was just that; an extremely thin line between life and death. Or rather their lives and wildlife and certain flora that had no compunction about snacking on an unwary interloper. Unseen electromagnetic fences prevented the more dangerous wildlife from encroaching on the areas that had been cleared for use by the Republic. 

Still, some foolish visitors - guests and members of senatorial delegations - had thought themselves invincible and had ventured into the the jungle where they had encountered a nest of Piranha Beetles. Though none had suffered fatal injuries a number of them had had to spend a prolonged stay in Bacta while chunks nibbled out of calves and forearms were healed.

He attempted to explain as much to her. “A great many things in the jungle around here could seriously maim or kill you, both flora and fauna.” 

Dorah’s eye grew round in disbelief. “How can anything so _beautiful_ possibly be dangerous?” She gasped in horror. 

Poe threw a glance at Vara, and smiled to himself. _You have no idea_ , he thought to himself.

“Perhaps you might then reconsider reopening the vote regarding moving the seat of government to a different world. A safer one given the number of children you seem to have running about the place.” Interjected Senator Arinndis, through a mouthful of food. 

Poe knew that the children had a lot more sense some others than to venture too far into the jungle; though some of them had had such tough starts in life he fancied their chances if they ever did manage make their way into the more dangerous sections.

He shook his head. “No, I agree with the other founding Senate members that we are best based on a neutral world. One with no sentient indigenous life. If we were to base ourselves on one of the inhabited worlds, it might be construed as favouritism. Also, as you know, this planet has some historical significance that a great many felt should be honoured.”

“Very well.” The senator said simply, returning to shovelling food into himself. 

Over the dessert, a simple caramel concoction topped with chocolate, the Senator made a speculative attempt at lobbying Poe on some matter. Rose didn’t catch much of the conversation over the Dorah Valarian’s droning on about the events Lady Arinndis had hosted on Arkanis; the lavish spreads and the elegant entertainments. 

From what little she managed to overhear it seemed that he was pressing Poe regarding data from surveys carried out in the Arkanis sector some twenty years previously. Something about data that had been lost when Hosnian Prime was destroyed but might still exist in the back up archives they had recently recovered from Coruscant.

Determined to not break his rule about mixing work with pleasure, and annoyed at being ambushed on a matter that he had not yet himself researched, Poe’s reply was terse. 

“Let’s not discuss work matters. You can come to my office when you return from recess and we can talk it over then.”

The mention of mining set off alarm bells for Rose. Perhaps it was an irrational reaction based on her own personal experiences but she made a mental note to notify Connix to pull all information on Arkanis and mining surveys. 

With the dessert plates removed, the evening was now finally winding down. Excusing themselves early on the grounds of returning to Paige; Rose and Finn said their farewells. Vara gave Rose a pleading look. Rose moved to give her a hug goodbye. 

“Please don’t leave me alone with this woman.” Vara whispered. Rose looked over Vara’s shoulder and caught Poe’s eye. He seemed to understand the volumes imparted by the look she gave him, and so moved to bring the evening to a swift conclusion. 

He offered Senator Arinndis his hand, “Well this has been delightful but you mustn’t let us keep you. I understand you are heading back to Arkanis in the morning.”  He laid on the charm for Lady Karrine and her niece as he shepherded their party out of the dining room; reiterating what pleasant company they had been. He stayed by the door watching as they made their way down the corridor. Once they were out of sight he returned.

“Thank the gods that’s over.” Poe looked weary as he began to undo the top buttons on his high collared jacket and shirt. He moved over to the table and after checking a couple in turn, picked up one of the bottles of wine. It was nearly full. He then went to the door and held it open.

“Come on Vara, let’s go. We’ve got a date with this bottle.”

Vara smiled warmly for the first time in hours. Maybe the evening wasn’t going to be a complete wash out after all. 

“On your six commander.” She replied as she headed towards him. He draped his free arm around her shoulders and steered her off in the direction of his apartment.

Rose and Finn walked back to their own apartment arm in arm. Rose was lost in thought. Connix clearly had some misgivings about someone who might be attending the meal but Rose couldn’t think who it could be. No one had behaved furtively; the Senator’s wife and niece appeared to be exactly the kind of people they presented themselves as. There was no crime in being an almighty snob or a ninny.

 

Once back in their apartment, Finn went and checked on Paige while Rose disrobed and got ready for bed.

Finn entered having checked on Paige. He quickly undressed and having been given a look by Rose gather up his discarded clothes and put them in the laundry hamper. “What did you think?” he asked as he climbed in to bed beside Rose. She sighed, the evening had felt like such a waste of time and effort.

“Other than perhaps suggesting Connix pull as much information on mining surveys in the Arkanis region, which I suspect she will do anyway, I feel like the evening was a complete non-starter. I didn’t get any impression that anyone there this evening was worthy of any particular in-depth scrutiny.” 

 “A punch in the face perhaps” she added. 

“Never mind,” Finn said consolingly. “Did you get a chance read the message from Rey? How are they getting on?”

“No, I was saving it for after the meal.” 

“Well it’s after the meal now. Hopefully they have some good news. Or at the very least Ben hasn’t gone on the rampage.”

Rose rolled her eyes. The Ben they had known a year ago might have been on edge much more often than not but over time he had mellowed a great deal; though he still tended to keep to himself when in company and had to be coaxed into conversation.

She knew from talking with Rey that he was not so closed off when it was just her or Ari’li. Rose hoped they would get to know that Ben; from stories Rey had related about their adventures said he sounded like a dangerous combination of his parents’ wit and temperament. 

It was Rey who, over the course of a year tracking down leads that seemed to be dead-ends, had seemed to have developed a short fuse. But they had both returned from Canto Bight in high spirits and far more relaxed than she had ever known them. It seemed that with Hux finally in custody a great weight had finally been lifted and they could breath.

Rose activated the data pad, scanned the first few lines and let out a short laugh which ended in a snort.

“What is it?” Finn enquired.

Rose turned to him with a grin. “Literally the first thing she says, after apologising for the delay in getting in touch, is that Ben has _not_ gone on the rampage.” 

Finn smiled, that was something at least. He was about to say as much when Rose held a finger to his lips.

“I’ll read it to you, _if_ you promise to keep your smart remarks to yourself.”

He kissed her finger tip and nodded in asset.

 

 

_Dear Rose,_

_I’m so sorry that it’s taken so long for me to get this message to you and that it is so short. Firstly Ben would like to assure you all that the delay was not due to him going on a rampage. We seemed to have arrived on Tatooine just before the seasonal sandstorms hit and every time we thought things had cleared enough to send out any messages we’d discover that the antenna had blown over again, or the power booster had filled with sand and by the time we’d fixed it it was storming again. Ben, of course had some cutting words to say about the quality of Alliance equipment…_

 

****

 

Ari’li was kneeling on the alcove seat looking out into the storm. Outside, the wind howled; it was an eerie, wheezing sound, mingled with the sound of sand rasping at the walls of the house. So much was whirling about that she could barely see The Orphan even though it was was a scant five metres from the house. Equipment creaked ominously and occasionally there was a dull clank and a low voice swearing.

Rey was busy laying out dishes of food for lunch; yet another meal of bread, steamed vegetables and over boiled pulses of which they were rapidly tiring. 

The door slid open, and Ben stomped in, the cowl he had pulled over his head when he had ventured out had been blown back fairly early on and his hair was in utter disarray.

“That antenna is utter junk! Couldn’t Dameron have given us something better than third hand Alliance equipment; probably left over from the Clone Wars?”

Ari’li squealed as Ben brushed copious amounts of sand off of himself and dashed to hit the door’s manual release to prevent any more of the dessert from coming in with him. The sand had a habit of getting caught up in the door sensors so it wouldn’t automatically close.

“I’ll have you know that that antenna is state of the art First Order junk.” Rey retorted, her eyes shining with mirth as she advanced on him, wielding a metal spatula.

“I’m sure you could put in a complaint, didn’t you work with someone rather high up in the organisation?” She said as she brushed the sand from his hair, and stood on her tip toes and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

“Not my area,” he muttered as he leaned down kiss her fully. Behind them Ari’li giggled and prodded Artoo who beeped almost conspiratorially to her.

“Good idea Artoo” Rey said as she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into a firm kiss, dislodging more sand from his hair, down her neck. 

She pushed him away with a laugh. “Ugh, you are _covered_ in sand Ben, please go and clean up before we eat. I’ll have a go at the antenna later. Otherwise we can just wait until the storm clears.” 

“Who knows, how long that will take; it’s been over a week already. Any longer and I’m sure someone will think I’ve regressed and gone on a rampage or who knows what!”

“Don’t be silly, we’ve been incommunicado longer than this before. Besides Ari’li promised Poe she’d shoot you if you showed any signs of turning.”

Ben grinned, it was the lopsided one that made Rey want to do unspeakable things. “Well, that _is_ reassuring. I’m glad you are both so supportive.”

“We do it because we love you. Now, please go! The amount of sand on you is frankly ridiculous. I swear you are a magnet for this stuff.”

Ben hurried off towards the refresher while Rey returned to the kitchen muttering about sand getting every where.

“Why don’t we just send the message from the ship?” Ari’li enquired as she fetched a small handheld vacuum and began to clean up the trail of sand Ben had left in his wake. It wheezed almost as much as the wind outside and seen a lot of use over the last week.

“Unfortunately The Orphan’s transmitter isn’t great at handling extreme atmospheric distortions. Or surface level storms for that matter. _Someone_ didn’t spec for it…” Rey added with a smile.

“I did spec for it, but there is something in the sand that is messing with the transmitter. “ Ben said as he returned and brought a bowl of steamed vegetables with him to the table. 

“I don’t think it’s composed of ordinary silica. It feels different somehow.” He added as he served up the vegetables, handing a plate to Ari’li as she sat down. 

Rey shrugged, that did sound plausible enough; but they didn’t currently have all the necessary equipment to determine whether Ben’s theory was correct.

She joined them at the table and continued. ”Besides, we don’t want to be flying her around and attracting attention while trying to get a clear signal out. Maybe we will find some place in Anchorhead that sells spare parts and we can do some modifications on her or the antenna. Maybe it just needs a signal boost. That would make a fun project.”

 

****

 

_So we’ve been cooped up in the this place for about nineteen days. Ben insists that it’s been twenty, Ari’li thinks it’s only been eighteen, so in the interest of familial harmony we split the difference._

_We are going to head to Anchorhead today once I’ve transmitted this. It’s about 100 kilometres away at the far end of Jundland Waste. Hopefully we will have some tales of local colour for you when I next write._

_May the Force be with you all, as all our love is._

_Rey_

 

“It sounds like they are settling in well” Finn said sleepily, a heavy dinner with wine on top of a long day was finally taking its toll.

“Yes, I think the change of pace is exactly what they needed.” Rose agreed. 

“Oh wait there’s more. It’s from Ben.” she added.

 

_Finn and Rose_

_I just wanted to add my thanks for the wedding gift you sent for us with Maz. It was an incredibly thoughtful gift. Both Rey and I are very touched at your continued kindness - Ben._

 

Finn still found it difficult to reconcile the man  who wrote those words with one who had ordered the execution of the villagers on Jakku. He really did seemed to have changed, or reverted to the person he had always supposed to have been. 

On further introspection he had to admit that even he himself wasn’t the same person who had boarded a troop carrier one night some five years ago. And then there was the matter of what had happened just after the battle, before they withdrew from the village. When Kylo Ren had turned to face him; he was certain he had felt something at the edge of his mind, probing before he swept  away back to his shuttle. He had not done nor said anything about it. If he was as powerful as he was supposed, he would have known cause of his hesitation. Why had Ren not done anything about him then and there? It was a question he had always wanted to ask Ben, but had refrained to do so out of consideration for Rey.

 

 

 

 

A few hours before dawn Rose suddenly sat bolt upright in bed, dislodging the arm Finn had slung across her chest. He mumbled slightly and turned over. How could she have been so blind? She fumbled for her comm link and sent a single word to Connix — handmaiden.

A moment later it flashed up with an acknowledgement, did she ever sleep? Rose wondered as she fell back down on the pillows and let exhaustion reclaim her.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a rather long chapter, but I couldn't bring myself to split it up and spoil the flow.

It had been a slow morning, as all mornings had been for as long as she cared to remember. A few workers and farmers on their way into Anchorhead had passed by the clearly open store but only one or two had even bothered to pause. The selection of goods available at Tosche Station were nothing to those to be found in the town proper. Either that or random housewares, decades old power converters and pod racer parts were just not to their taste.

But still they had persisted and stayed put. Not for the first time did Camie consider closing up early and retiring to the back room with a bottle of something to help her forget. But she was stubborn, so she never did. Her husband, his mind nearly gone, liked to sit at the back of the shop in a cool corner; it was a good vantage point from which to survey his domain. She had no doubt, that in his mind he was seeing it as it had been some three decades ago. 

Back then it had been a hive of activity; most of the youths from the nearby homesteads loitered there much to their overworked parents’ chagrin, herself included. Sometimes she heard him mumble odd snippets of conversations with people who were long gone, never to return.

They had been married for over thirty years. The first few years had been happy and successful. Then they had become less successful and in due course, less happy. But she would stick by her man no matter what. It was a trait typical to settlers on Tatooine; once they had put their minds to do something it would take nothing short of an orbital bombardment to get them to even consider the possibility of changing their minds.

The monitoring device she wore on her wrist suddenly pinged, alerting her to some activity on the street a little ways beyond the shop. Her husband had installed the sensor and camera system years ago in more lucrative times, when the goods they had sold were far more in demand. 

She moved down the shop counter where the view screen was located tucked under the counter and leaned against the wall to enable her to discreetly watch the image on the screen, should any customers enter.

A blue skinned child of indeterminate sex radiating excitement, bounded into view. It stopped and then turned and appeared call to someone behind them to hurry. Not for the first time did she wish this thing had the ability to pick up sound. The child’s companions then came on screen. 

First to join the dark haired alien child, was a young human woman. She was tall and lithe. Her pretty face would soon turn to leather Camie thought bitterly. If they stayed on Tatooine any length of time, that was. 

She had to admit thought that the young woman did seem to be dressed appropriately for a desert climate. For most newcomers it took about a year for them to learn how to manage the delicate balancing act of keeping cool and their clothes free of sand, if they even bothered to stay on Tatooine that long. 

This one had tightly bound cloth strips around her arms, almost like a Tusken. She wore a loose sleeveless top, cropped pants and sturdy boots. A creamy coloured cowled cape with a hood that was pushed back, billowed out behind her as she moved, buffeted by the breeze; the last gasps of the previous weeks’ sandstorm. Her dark hair was pulled back from her face and fell down past her shoulders. _She_ had once had hair like that, dark and striking. Now it was mostly the colour of iron. Mentally computing the amount of credits likely to be in their pocket books based on young woman’s clothing and the plain yet serviceable trousers and loose, embroidered top worn by the child, Camie decided that if they did call in to the shop it wouldn’t hurt to subject them to some degree of charm.

It was then that third, and final member of the party caught up with the woman and child. The older woman straightened in a combination of awe and surprise. 

The young woman had been of an average sort of tallness, but the human male who joined her almost towered over her, or perhaps it was just the way the camera was angled. While his dress was nothing out of the ordinary, just a slightly darker hue than was the norm on Tatooine, his bearing certainly was. 

He walked and held himself like he owned the universe. He stood close to the young woman, and draped one arm casually around her shoulders as the blue child jabbered at them animatedly. The woman couldn’t see his face very well, but from what she could see he had exceptionally fair skin and dark hair; an arresting combination. The child finally ceased talking and the trio carried on towards the shop. 

There was something about that man that reminded her of someone. Someone from her past who had also acted like he was better than anyone else in Anchorhead, or Tatooine as a whole for that matter. Her face contorted as if she’d tasted something sour. “Wormie,” she muttered to herself.

Her husband stirred slightly, “thread the needle!” he mumbled. She immediately tensed and swore under her breath. After a few moments, when he seemed to have no other pronouncement to make on the subject, she relaxed. There was one topic that it did not do well to not raise with Old Fixer. Even after thirty odd years there was one event that never failed to send him off on a rant that had on previous occasions led to Camie accidentally receiving a black eye. In one of his rare lucid moments afterwards he had wept on seeing the injury he had caused. And so had she, for the man she’d married but ultimately lost.

As the strange family party neared the shop she was able to make out their voices. The child, who sounded like it might be a girl, expressed an interest in exploring the shop so Camie schooled her features into something more pleasant and welcoming; it wouldn’t do at all to antagonise potential customers.

 

 

 

Ben was glad to be out of the house and able to move around again. Nearly the last three weeks had been spent in relatively pleasant confinement; but towards the end of it they had all been going a little stir crazy. 

Luckily the sandstorms had cleared two days earlier and they’d been able to get a message sent out to Yavin, via Maz, and check the holonet to confirm that there were no more storms expected for the next few months. 

To pass the time Ben and Rey had tried running through forms in the house, but wasn’t enough room for some of the more energetic ones nor the ones that exercised reach. And the first and last time they had attempted sparring, just with training sticks, Ari’li and the Porgs had fled in protest. 

They were going to have to give some serious thought to how they were going to manage this in the long run, Perhaps the house was going to need another extension, but where they were they possibly going to fit another room that would double the existing structure’s floor space was a sticking point.

In the end Ben had done some calligraphy and, after she had expressed an interest, had starting teaching Ari’li. 

Meanwhile, Rey had been reading some of the old books she’d liberated from Ahch-To. Ben wasn’t sure what headway she was making with them; she seemed to spend much of her time frowning as she read.

Sensing that Rey needed a break he suggested that he teach both her and Ari’li how to play Sabacc; a game he’d initially learnt from his father, and unbeknownst to his mother, had perfected while visiting various dubious locations with Han and Lando in his early teens. Being Force sensitive had given him an edge that many had simply put down to his father’s genes.

 

Ben tidied away the calligraphy brushes and paper while Ari’li fetched the deck of cards. She started laying them out on the table, and called Ben over to explain the face cards to her. 

“That one is the Star it’s worth negative ten points. This one” he said pointing to another “is called the Queen, it’s negative two points.”

“And this one?” Ari’li asked. “That’s the Evil One,” Ben replied in a mock menacing tone.

“Oh so that’s you then,” teased Ari’li. “And Rey is the Queen.”

“She certainly is,” he agreed “However this one is more me,” he said turning over another card. “Behold, The Idiot!”

“How much is that one worth.” Ari’li asked when she finally stopped giggling.

“Zero points.”  

“Oh,” Ari’li was disappointed. Rey had come over and was standing behind Ben, her arms around his neck. “Oh, it’s not that bad, it’s a perfect balance between positive and negative.” She said as she bent down to kiss him on the cheek.

“There’s no time for _all that_ now, let’s get playing.” declared Ari’li eager to get started.

 

Rey picked up the mechanics of the game readily enough, and both she and Ben made a concerted effort to not use the Force while they played. Ari’li, however was a natural, and after a wobbly start started winning steadily.

After about an hour’s long loosing streak Ben tossed his cards on the table with a disgruntled sigh while Ari’li giggled manically. 

“What are we playing for anyway?” she asked.

“Sand!” Ben replied, slightly annoyed, though in fairness he was pretty rusty, having not played in close to twenty years.

Rey stood up and stretched, rolling her neck. “Well, Ari’li, if you wash out of flight training you can always make a living gambling,” she laughed.

“Oh, sure,” agreed Ben, “We could send her off to Bespin for masterclasses with Lando. At least he won’t try to…” Rey shot him a warning look.

“Try to do what?” Ari’li pressed.

“Wring your neck for being an infuriatingly good player.” Ben quickly quipped. 

Ari’li just grinned. She had yet to meet the famous Lando Calrissian, but, cobbling together bits and pieces from all the stories she’d heard about him, he sounded rather fun.

 

Once the storms had cleared Rey had suggested that they visit Anchorhead to see if they could find any parts for boosting the Orphan’s signal array. Ben still maintained that it was some aspect of the sand that was causing the interference, rather than the storm itself, they had agreed to try Rey’s solution first before worrying about mysterious sand that didn’t approve of radio waves.

They also needed to stock up on some fresh fruit and vegetables. They still had plenty of dried pulses in the basement stores but Rey wasn’t used to cooking them and they were getting rather bored of bland meals of mostly mush.

Anchorhead, roughly a hundred kilometres to the east, was far enough away and small enough that they should not attract too much attention. Bestine proper, as the nominal capital was pretty much a no-go area for them. The chance of being recognised was too high. Even on his brief visit there when dropping Maz off at her ship, Ben had sensed once or twice that some people thought him vaguely familiar. He hadn’t felt like sticking around to find out in what capacity. 

 

While Ari’li had spent the entire speeder journey in a state of near constant excitement, pointing out  interesting features of the landscape and the odd wrecked ship,  Rey had remained curiously silent. Once they had arrived though, she returned to her usual self. Though Ben noticed she looked a little pale.

“Are you ok?” He asked frowning as he plucked her out of the speeder.

Rey nodded and the colour began to return to her cheeks once she was on solid ground. 

“Yes, I’m fine. I’ve just never ridden in a speeder like that before. It feels different to riding my old one on Jakku. I think that’s what made me feel a bit unwell. I just need a little time to get used to it.” 

“Good, I was worried it was my piloting. You can try flying us back if you like, perhaps that will help.”

“Your piloting was flawless. Though you may be right, maybe I’m just not a good passenger,” she conceded. Perhaps concentrating on piloting would be enough of a distraction to allay the travel sickness.

“Hang on there!” Ben called after Ari’li who had already run ahead towards the outskirts of the town.  She turned back towards them “Alright, but hurry up! Oh look a mechanic’s shop! Rey can we look in here?” 

Rey jogged off towards Ari’li while Ben immobilised the speeder, and grabbed his satchel.

“Sure, but first I want to see if they have anything in the way of clothes,  you’ve been growing like a weed lately, my girl.” She agreed once she caught up with Ari’li.

Ben caught up with them and gave Rey another hug, glad to see her looking and acting much more herself again. He squinted up at the sandblasted sign over a mechanic’s workshop entrance. The weathered paint had worn away in places and he could just about make out something that might say Tosche Station. It sounded familiar for some reason though he couldn’t place why.

“You go ahead, I’ll have a look here” he said, peering into the cluttered interior of the workshop. 

Rey wrinkled her nose. “Are you sure, some of this stuff looks really old,” she observed as she picked through a crate by the entrance.  “Antique even, I’m not sure any we’d find here would be compatible with the transmitter on The Orphan or the house’s antenna.” 

“I have complete faith in your skills,” Ben said, before giving her a quick kiss on the forehead before advancing into the dark cavern of the workshop. 

Rey shook her head as she watched him head into what she suspected was more a cavern of trash than treasures, and smiled; he could be really quite charming when he tried. She ushered Ari’li towards what appeared to be the entrance to the adjacent general store. “Come on, let’s see what we can find.”

Ari’li eagerly dashed ahead of her into the shop. Rey took her time; she still felt a little unsteady after the speeder trip. She wondered, as she browsed some plain serviceable clothes in earthy tones, if she should check in with the medics on Yavin regarding her iron levels, perhaps she should be taking some more supplements. 

There was a pricking at the edge of her senses and she suddenly realised that she was being closely watched. She turned sharply and met the level gaze of a weather-beaten woman. “Oh, I’m sorry. Hello,” she said lamely.

The woman just stared at her for a moment before flatly replying, “Good morning.” She paused a moment before adding in a slightly warmer tone, “If you need any assistance, please let me know.”

Rey smiled, “Thank you, I will” She could sense the woman sizing her up. She felt a pang of empathy. Even though this world was in a way far more kinder than Jakku, she understood all too well the effect trying to eke out a living on an unforgiving world had on a person. She momentarily recalled her last afternoon on Jakku, scrubbing away on a recently scavenged part, and looking over at the much older woman opposite her working away at the same task. She remembered thinking that she might as well have been looking at herself in another half century, if she were lucky, or worse, unlucky.  

She gave the woman another smile and began to work her way further into the store, looking over the various wares on offer. Sitting in a corner at the back she glimpsed a grizzled old man, a walking cane lay across his lap. He was very still and staring vacantly ahead. 

Ari’li had come across an old astromech droid with red peeling paint. She was speculatively prodding it in various places when the old man suddenly jerked forward in his chair, brandishing  his cane. “Just you mind what you are at, you blue imp!” he shouted at her.

Ari’li, taken by surprise, uncharacteristically squealed in fright, and dashed back towards Rey. The shopkeeper moved out from behind the counter to try and defuse the situation. As she moved into the brighter light of the store proper, Rey could better make out her features; her face was careworn and not entirely unkind. 

“Don’t be afraid of old Fixer. His mind is mostly gone, but he’s harmless.” She said wearily to Ari’li as she jerked her head towards the old man.

Rey wondered if his tendency to loud outbursts of a similar nature had been the cause for the apparent lack of custom in the shop.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” The woman asked with a sigh.

“We are new to the area and we’ve been holed up in our place for the last few weeks due to the storms and greatly underestimated the amount of supplies we needed and how long the storms can last for.” Rey explained, attempting to keep her tone kind but not condescending, she could sense that this woman may be world weary but she was proud and stubborn; the last thing she needed or wanted was someone pitying her.

The old man then started muttering about tourists. Rey was confused, she was unable to fathom why anyone might visit this place for pleasure. Jakku at least didn’t have sandstorms like the one they had experienced for the last fortnight. Plus it boasted the site of the last great battle of the Galactic Civil War. She was certain that there had to be other history buffs like Ben who would have had some strange enjoyment at visiting the graveyard. But no one ever came. She could feel the woman’s mood shift from weariness to agitation.

The older woman threw a glance towards her husband, her shoulders tensed. She knew that this particular declaration of Fixer’s heralded a longer tirade and attempted to head him off before the young woman who she was now certain was not short for few credits and her… child were scared off and ventured in to Anchorhead and discovered the better stores there.

“Now Laze” she said slowly and in well practiced soothing tone, “This young lady is _living_ in the area.” She gave Rey a pointed look. 

“That’s right” Rey concurred, “We’re based out near the Jundland Wastes, the Hubba Heights.” She didn’t care to elaborate further on the location, already worried that she had given too much away in her attempt to prove her credentials as a bone fide settler.

The woman gaped at her. “That’s nearly a hundred kilometres away!” she spluttered. Why in the hells had they come all the way out here and not gone to Bestine or the Pika Oasis.

“The Kenobi place is out in that direction, crazy old wizard… They _are_ damned tourists, Camie!” The old man exclaimed, slamming his cane on the ground for emphasis. Rey was momentarily startled, she hadn’t expected that reaction.

Camie sighed and closed her eyes, mentally kissing goodbye any credits that might have been in her future. She knew what was coming and there was little to do but ride out the storm.

Sure enough her husband launched in to a well practiced rant. 

“Just because Luke Skywalker grew up here! People flock to the place, wandering around gawping, and _never_ _buying_ _anything!_ ”

He punctuated the last three words of this tirade with a series of sharp raps of his cane on the floor.

Rey decided to deal with this head on. She didn’t want to antagonise the couple, but at the same time she was genuine curious. Clearly the Force was at work here somehow that the first people they should encounter here had known Luke. 

 “I knew he grew up on Tatooine, I just didn’t realise it was around here.” Rey said.

“Well, not _here_ exactly” interjected the woman, “the old Lar’s homestead is a few kilometres west of here. Well, what remains of it.” She added, her expression darkening slightly.

“I say he snapped! He was so desperate to leave, and his uncle wouldn’t hear of it.” Her husband said with a sneer.

“Fixer!” gasped his wife, shocked. “I know we never really got along with Luke but he wasn’t the kind to go and do a thing like _that_.”

Ari’ll, sensing a potentially lurid story, piped up. “What happened?” she asked, her red eyes unnerving wide.

The older woman looked at Ari’li and Rey through narrowed eyes. No-one had ever asked about this before. Well no one aside from the Stormtroopers who had briefly questioned them before being summoned to Mos Eisley. 

Confirmation that Luke Skywalker, famed Jedi Knight or Rebellion Commander or whatever he was, had lived here was enough for ordinary folk chasing myths. They would promptly leave once they realised that Tatooine had nothing else to offer but sand. She cast her mind back to a morning not unlike today when she had been young and carefree. She took a deep breath and it all tumbled out, things she hadn’t though about in years. Things she hadn’t wanted to think about.

“No one knows for sure. The day before, Luke was in here claiming that there was a space battle overhead. Which was ridiculous, he was always a dreamer, imagining all kinds of wild things. He went off with his friend Biggs who had just graduated from the Academy and was shipping out on his first assignment. That was the last we saw of him, of both of them.” She shook her head sadly. Everyone had liked Biggs. Where Luke managed to irritate, Biggs was all easy, affable charm. The stories varied as to his fate; some said he’d been picked up by an Imperial Agent while attempting to defect, another version said that he had been killed while fighting for the Rebellion.

“Never did come by and get those power converters, after the earful he gave me about holding on to them,” the old man spat.

Camie rolled her eyes and continued “The following evening his aunt and uncle were… were found dead.” Her voice trailed off and she squeezed her eyes shut. Though she’d not witnessed the scene, her brother had. He hadn’t been the same for months afterwards. And it was still months more before he could be prevailed upon to tell her what he had seen. 

Rey could sense the woman’s apprehension; there was something else, but something she had kept buried for years and couldn’t bring herself to tell them. She felt bad for having pressed the matter at all. 

“So were a whole tribe of those filthy Jawas.” interjected Fixer. 

Camie shrugged off his suggestion that the two events were in anyway linked.

“That was all the way out near Bestine. Besides they were clearly attacked by Sand People.” Her husband didn’t seem to agree with that theory, and started muttering at length about blasters, bantha tracks and a pyre.

“Did the Sand People attack Luke’s aunt and uncle” asked Ari’Li, there was supposed to be a tribe encamped not far from their homestead and she didn’t fancy being murdered in her bed.

“Tuskens don’t generally incinerate folk.” The old man said, a lurid tone in his voice. Ari’li’s eyes widened even further and she shuddered.

“Fixer! You’ll scare the child” His wife exclaimed as she drew Rey and Ari’li back towards the front of the ship away from her husband. She lowered her voice “I’m sorry, the whole Skywalker thing sets him off so. He still resents Luke for a great deal, not limited to managing getting off this rock.”

Rey smiled understandably. She could well believe that Luke as a young man had had a knack of infuriating people. He had certainly had it as an adult.

Camie decided to test if her hopes for a sale were in vain or not. “Now, you two need supplies then?”

“Three,” Rey corrected her. “There’s my, ah, husband as well.” She was still not used to referring to him as such. Strangely, the light from the street dimmed perceptively as she said this.

“Of, course,” stuttered the woman, looking up. Rey followed her gaze to see Ben standing in the doorway, a dark silhouette that almost blocked out the light. Conversely, his presence in the Force was very much the opposite, causing Rey to smile to herself. 

Ben stepped into the shop, the sunlight returned, Ari’li immediately ran up to him and tugged him towards the astromech she had previously been examining. 

“My word he’s a tall one” Camie remarked, awestruck; the camera hadn’t lied. She seemed momentarily lost in thought and then shook her head as if to dislodge an unwanted thought. 

“Anyway, supplies. We don’t have a terribly big selection here; just the basics. But my nephew manages a hydroponic farm just west of here where you can get fresh vegetables, fruit, bantha milk that kind of thing.”

“That sounds perfect, Thank you.” 

 

Exhausted by so much interaction the older woman retreated back behind the counter and Rey continued looking around. From time to time she returned to the counter to drop of sachets of carb-starch and spices for the older woman to ring up. She also selected some curiously squishy packets of protein that seemed like a cross between a cheese and meat.

On one trip back to the counter she looked towards the back of the shop where Ben and Ari’li were still engrossed in the old droid.

“Is that old astromech for sale?” she enquired.

The older woman looked at her incredulously. The droid was the last thing she ever thought would sell. She fully believed that it would still be sitting there long after she and Fixer were gone. “That old thing? It’s more than sixty seasons old and busted beyond belief; even if you could get it to boot up, the motivator on it has never worked properly.”

To her surprise the young woman seemed completely unfazed. “I have a way with machinery,” she said with a shrug.

Feeling generous Camie replied, “You can have it for free for all I care. I’m fed of having it here, cluttering up the place.”

Rey grinned, “it’s a deal.”

Remembering the other reason for the shopping trip she went over and inspected the clothing rack.  

She found some simple loose fitting tunics, some pants and a hopelessly unfashionable poncho that she could alter and at the very least Ari’li could grow into. As she laid the articles of clothing on the ever increasing pile on the counter Ben came back with Ari’li, holding some components which he placed with Rey’s haul “We’ll take these as well”.

Rey picked them up and turned them over, scrutinising them with a trained eye. They didn't look familiar to her, and bore no resemblance to the old Imperial tech with which she was most familiar.  “What _are_ these?” she asked.

“Power converters.”

She raised an eyebrow. “These are the strangest looking power converters I’ve ever seen. Oh, I need you to go and get that red astromech unit Ari’li was showing you.”

It was Ben’s turn to express surprise. “What? That piece of junk? It’s probably older than Artoo.”

Rey rolled her eyes, “It’s R5 series, Ben. It’s three generations _newer_ than Artoo.” She thought it best to not mention that that particular model had once been described as ‘A meter-tall stack of the worst business decisions you could possibly want.’ Technology had progressed enough that they could replace its old parts quite readily and reprogram its personality matrix if it turned out be as sullen as the old reviews had said.  

Ben was impressed at her near encyclopaedic knowledge of old tech “How can you tell?”

“The squat conical frustum head cone and photoreceptor placements are a trademark of the R5 series.” she replied with a twitch at the corner of her mouth.

“I bow to your superior knowledge of outdated technology,” he quipped, returning her smirk. 

She gave him a playful slap on the arm. “It’s for Ari’li, she could do with a project to keep her occupied the next time we get sanded in, otherwise she might take to dressing up the Porgs.  Or demanding to play Sabacc for cold, hard credits. Besides if she’s going to be a pilot she’ll need an astromech.” 

Ari’li had rejoined them and overhearing, this clapped her hands with joy. “Oh yes, and he could be a friend for Artoo.”

“Fair enough,” Ben conceded before heading back to collect the droid. As he eyed the hunk of metal dubiously, trying to determine if it had a wheel unlock so he could push it along or if he was going to end up having to carry it, the old man sitting nearby leaned forward and prodded him with his cane.

“Did she say your name was Ben?” he demanded, his eyes narrow with suspicion.

“Yes…” Ben replied, slightly confused. The old man’s eyes flashed momentarily “Watch out for that Old Ben Kenobi. They say he’s a crazy old wizard. He’ll have you running off and getting yourself killed… or worse” he added with an ominous note. 

Not much rattled Ben after nearly lifetime spent tormented by Snoke’s taunts and torture, but there was something in the old man’s tone that sent a chill down his spine. He managed to find the wheel lock and hurriedly pushed the battered old droid towards Rey and Ari’li.

When he reached them Rey had finished paying and the shopkeeper was bundling up their purchases. They rarely communicated via their Force bond but she could tell something was up and she didn’t want to worry either Ari’li or the shopkeeper who still seemed quite agitated. _Are you alright?_ she asked. _I’ll be ok, I just need to get out of here. I’ll meet you back at the speeder._  

Ben rolled the droid past them out of the shop. 

“We’ll meet you at the speeder!” Rey called after him for the shopkeeper’s benefit. Ari’li took the parcel of food items and followed Ben.

“Thank you again for all your help.” She said with a smile as she took the bundle of clothing.

“I hope you have a pleasant day,” she added in a soothing tone as she exited the shop. Camie felt a wave of calm wash over her.  She walked to the shop’s entrance and stood there for a moment watching them leave. 

What a nice young family, she thought to herself.

 

 

Ben had just got the R5 unit loaded into the back of the speeder when Ari’li and Rey rejoined him. Rey tossed the bundle of clothes in after it and took the food from Ari’li while the latter clambered up into the speeder. The rest of their purchases safely stowed, Rey climbed into the driver’s seat while Ben finished making sure the R5 unit was in no danger of falling out as they sped home.

“The shopkeeper mentioned that her nephew has a farm near here where we can get fresh produce. I thought we might swing by on our way home.”

“Sounds good to me,” Ben said settling down beside her. 

“It would take us on on a route around the other side of the Jundland Waste, along the edge of the Western Dune Sea” She said.

 

They found the Marstrap farm easily enough a few kilometres west of Anchorhead at the edge of Great Chott Salt Flats. The shopkeeper’s nephew was a friendly, solid young man around Ben’s age; though exposure to Tatooine’s harsh elements had left him looking about ten years older. 

He was adjusting the settings on a large moisture vaporator with the help of two small children, as they pulled up at the homestead’s synstone entrance dome near a pen holding some creatures with large curling horns that looked to Rey like giant ambulatory hair balls. Some of the smaller ones seemed to have coloured rags tied on to them.

Ben and Ari’li jumped down from the speeder and explained their errand.

After cautiously sizing up Ari’li, from the safety afforded by their father’s stocky frame, the farmer’s little girls dragged her away to look at the young Bantha calves. 

The young farmer happily supplied them with a few crates of fresh produce and helped Ben lash them down on the speeder. He was highly amused to see the familiar R5 unit. 

“I bet Aunt Camie was glad to see the back of that piece of junk,” he observed with a grin.

“He won’t be junk by the time I’m finished with him!” Ari’li replied as she approached, his daughters trailing after her, a hint of annoyance in her voice. The man smiled indulgently, he knew the stubbornness of girls, small or otherwise. Ben helped her back up in to the speeder while Rey thanked him and smiled wistfully at his little girls who were bouncing up and down chattering to Ari’li without pausing for a breath.

“Please come and play again Ari’li!” They shouted as they waved their unexpected visitors off.

 

 

It was getting towards mid afternoon when they headed out from the farm, continuing westwards towards the massive escarpment that signalled the edge of the Jundland Wastes. They were only a few kilometres into their journey when Ben stiffened.

“Stop!” He commanded suddenly, his voice cracking with effort. Rey reflexively slammed on the breaks. The speeder had barely come to a standstill before he vaulted out. Rey called after him but he didn’t seem to hear. 

Ben hit the ground heavily, the sands shifted as he landed, causing him to stumble forward. He threw out his hands to break his fall; the sand’s accumulated heat was unbearable, he could feel his palms burning. His vision swum and smoke stung his eyes. Coughing he stumbled onwards.

“Wait here,” Rey said to Ari’li as she went after Ben. He seemed to be heading towards a large round pit in the middle of the desert. As she neared him she caught sight of the remains of a synstone dome, similar to the one back at the Marstrap homestead, partially buried in the sand ahead of him.

Ben had collapsed on to his knees a few meters from the both the dome and pit. All she could sense from him was a strange mixture of shock and panic. Rey broke into a run and dropped down beside him placing her hand on his shoulder. Suddenly, she found herself overcome by thick smoke belching from a doorway in the synstone dome which was no longer submerged in the sand. Her eyes were streaming, she fumbled for Ben’s hand and catching it, gripped it tightly. 

The smoke was beginning to clear, but a smell remained. She recognised it immediately and the knowledge of its source made her retch. As the acrid fumes finally dissipated she could make out two bodies laying in the sand just outside the dome’s entrance. Forever frozen in their final agonising moments; nothing was left of them but bones scoured of their flesh by unimaginable heat. 

Ben was shaking violently beside her. Rey felt the horror and panic pouring from him. Her own heartbeat was racing and she felt her head swim. For a moment she thought she saw another figure, a youth, observing the carnage. His expression was strangely impassive. She knew him immediately. She nudged Ben and he followed her gaze. “Luke” he whispered. No sooner had he uttered his uncle’s name than the gruesome tableau melted away before their eyes. 

“Ben, your hands!” Rey cried, once her head stopped spinning, taking them into hers. His palms were heartbreakingly red and raw. She carefully blew the sand from them. He said nothing but allowed her pull him to his feet and lead him back to the speeder. He seemed stunned as she leaned into the foot well on the passenger side and pulled out the first aid kit; she wasn’t sure if it was the shock of the vision or the injury to his hands. She cleaned his palms and then sprayed them with a mixture of bacta and anaesthetic. As she wrapped his hands in bandages she looked about for Ari’li, spotting her a few meters away on the other side of the speeder, looking at something in the sand.

Rey let Ben’s hands fall and grasped him firmly by the shoulders and shook him. “Ben!” She pleaded, as she simultaneously nudged at his mind with the Force. It had a strange feel to it unlike any she had encountered before; it appeared that he was still transfixed by the image of the two bodies and whatever he had sensed from Luke. 

“Ben!” she repeated her voice almost breaking. She released him and then, at loss as to what else  to do to snap him out of his trance, she slapped him hard across the face. He stumbled backwards, his eyes wide in shock. He flung out one hand to steady himself against the speeder with his other he reached towards Rey. Her hand was at her mouth in shock, she couldn’t believe she’d actually struck him. He clasped her shoulder, and wrenched her towards him and held her close. His arms were tight around him; holding on to her as if his life or sanity depended on it. She could feel his heart beat, so rapid and violent that it seemed to shake the two of them as they embraced.

“Thank you,” he whispered into her hair. “Thank you.”

They stood there for a while, just holding each other. Relief, mercifully settled around them.

“I’m sorry” he said at length. “It was just too…” he searched in vain for the words to try and convey his reaction to the vision they had both experienced. “Horrible,” he finally said lamely, though it felt so inadequate.

Rey knew he had experienced much in his time that could justifiably be termed as horrible; and had been responsible for some of it. But this vision had somehow surpassed all that. It was clear from his reaction that this was as much as he could process of the experience for now. 

 

 

While Ben and Rey had been huddled together in the sand, Ari’li had hopped down from the speeder and was investigating some fallen stones she had spotted. They had names carved into them. One read Cliegg Lars. Another was bit older and had two names engraved on it: Gredda and Lef Lars, beside it a smaller one said Edern. The fourth one she found was one that she suspected Rey and Ben might find most interesting. On it was the name Shmi Skywalker. 

Skywalker she knew was the name of Ben’s uncle. So who was this Shmi? She looked back towards the speeder. Ben and Rey were now standing by it and were embracing; again. Ari’li rolled her eyes in amusement. It was so typical of them, one moment they might be sniping at each other, albeit teasingly, like Gundarks, and the next they would be snuggled up like Porgs.

She waited a few moments longer before calling out to them. “Come and look at what I found!”

Ben and Rey broke apart and made their way slowly towards her. They looked dreadful. “What happened?” she asked indicating the bandages on Ben’s hands. “The sand was hotter than I realised,” he replied distractedly.

“What’s this?” Rey asked, looking at the simple stone slabs Ari’li had uncovered. She crouched down, and traced her fingers over the names engraved on them. Cleigg Lars, he must have have been related to Owen and Beru she thought. “Owen’s father,” Ben said aloud. 

“What about this one?” Ari’li pointed to the one engraved with Shmi Skywalker.

Ben frowned. It wasn’t a name that was immediately familiar to him. All the same he knew who it was; who it had to be. 

“Anakin’s mother. She married Cleigg after Anakin left. Left or was taken, whichever way you want to put it,” he added bitterly. Ben looked about, here, in the middle of nowhere were the majority of his family, living or otherwise. 

“What do you know about her?” Rey asked.

“Not much, just that she came from Mos Espa and lived here for about ten years. For various reasons there’s not much information about her.”

Ari’li seemed confused. “What reasons?” She had no clue who this Anakin they were talking about was.

Ben sighed. Ari’li had initially had a hard enough time getting beyond his past as Kylo Ren, enforcer and Supreme Leader of the First Order. But she needed to know the whole truth, now seemed as good a time as any to tell her. It might be good practice for the future, he thought grimly. He gingerly sat down on the sand and motioned for Ari’li to sit also.

“Luke Skywalker was my uncle, my mother’s twin brother.” He started. 

“Yes, I know that. _Everyone_ knows that.” She said impatiently. 

“They were separated at birth and hidden away because their father, Anakin Skywalker had fallen to the dark side and had become Darth Vader.” By her reaction, Ari’li had not know that fact. For her, born long after the fall of the Empire, Darth Vader was less a real person, than a mythical  bogeyman-type figure.

Ben was equally surprised, and wondered if, perhaps, the truth about his mother’s parentage had not dissipated as far as he had expected. Or as far as those who had leaked the information in an effort to ruin his mother’s career and credibility had hoped. 

But it had spread far enough. Leia’s bid to become First Senator had ground to a halt, her  reputation left in tatters and her warnings regarding the rise of what was later revealed to be the First Order were ignored or dismissed. Ben for his part had reacted spectacularly badly to the news. Further driving his own fall. It had honestly felt like it was the only option left to him. He too was tainted by the association and believed that it was his bad blood that caused his inner turmoil. Only realising later how much of it had been due to many years of machinations and manipulations on the part of Snoke in the pursuit of his goal of finally destroying the Jedi.

Ben continued with his abridged family history, leaving out certain details which could be filled in later; some too heartbreaking for him to confront right at that moment.

“Anakin had been born and raised on Tatooine and was discovered by some Jedi and left his mother when he was about nine years old. His mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi later returned here with Luke as an infant and placed him in the care of his aunt and uncle. Step aunt and uncle technically but they were the only family left.”

“But wouldn’t Anakin or Darth Vader have suspected where the children where or have sensed them? Wasn’t he supposed to be a very power Jedi or Sith or whatever” Ari’li asked.

“As far as I know they managed to keep his and my mother’s birth a secret.” He replied. “My mother’s certainly.” Ben had wondered about this himself. How Anakin had been unable to sense that his wife was carrying twins was beyond him.

“But what about their mother?” Ari’li insisted. “I mean they had to have had one, where was she?”

“She died.” Ben’s voice faltered. “My mother said it was of a broken heart.”

It was as much as Ben could bear to tell them. As much as he could bear thinking about. Even he wasn’t entirely certain on some points. How his grandparents had met for instance, or what had led them to have such a relationship that would lead to children given that Anakin had been a Jedi, and as such attachment was strictly forbidden. The whole affair was tragic; a hidden, forbidden relationship that had in some way been the origin of decades of pain and suffering. Had the Jedi not taken Anakin or not forbidden relationships how different might things have been?

Ari’li threw her self at Ben and hugged him. “I’m sorry. But you have me and Rey now.” 

“Yes, and I count myself very lucky every day for that,” he replied as he hugged her back.

 

 

 

They flew the rest of the way back home in silence. Ari’li was perceptive enough to realise that this was not a time for idle chatter; too many painful secrets had been uncovered today. 

Once back she stowed the R5 unit in her room, while Ben and Rey put away the rest of the day’s purchases. Artoo was, as usual, powered down in the corner of the living area and she didn’t bother waking him. She decided she would wait to introduce him to the new addition once she had managed to get the droid booted up. 

She sat for a while in the alcove seat. As she gazed out, not looking at anything in particular she saw someone watching her outside the house. Whoever it was they appeared shocked to see her. She stuck her tongue out in defiance; an act which seemed to cause the stranger to fall almost flat on their back. She let out a sharp laugh of amusement, as she watched them scramble to their feet and disappear into the shadows.

“Did you say something?” Rey called from the kitchen.

“No…” Ari’li replied, not entirely sure of what to make of what she had just seen. 

 

 

They went through the motions of preparing and eating their evening meal in near silence. Ben disappeared shortly after clearing the table, leaving Rey and Ari’li to clean and put away the dishes. Ari’li was about to protest their being left with this task but Rey checked her. “He needs some time. He, and I, saw something at that old homestead. It was very… upsetting.”

“Was it anything to do with what the shopkeeper and her husband were talking about?” Ari’li asked, her brows knit in worry. 

Rey sighed deeply, “Yes.” 

Ari’li recognised the sadness in Rey’s voice and knew better to push further. Things Force and Family related were things they needed space to sort out on their own. In the meantime she had things with which to occupy herself.

The kitchen and living area now tidy; Ari’li proceeded to call up and download the R5 spec sheets  from the holonet on to one of her data pads and settled down in the alcove seat to read while Lunch and Spoon nestled on her feet.

She looked up briefly as Rey grabbed a blanket from the pile they kept by the alcove and headed outside. A moment later she heard muffled thuds on the wall and then roof.

 

 

 

It was getting cooler now that the suns were beginning to set. It was always a magnificent sight, as first one and then the other sun dipped below the horizon. Rey approached Ben, silhouetted against a sky that seemed to be on fire. Higher up the orange and red gave way to a rich purple fading to a star spangled blue-black. Ahch-To had had two suns as well. She wondered if Luke found them to be a comforting reminder of his childhood home.

Rey draped the blanket around Ben’s shoulders and sat down beside him, she laid her head on his arm, drawing the rest of the blanket around herself. She was content to just sit with him. He didn’t need to talk about it if he wasn’t ready. Ben’s hand found hers, his fingers threaded between hers, clasping it tightly in wordless thanks. They just sat and watched as the two suns slowly, inexorably, sank below the horizon, leaving a symphony of colour in their wake. Gradually the colours faded leaving behind a star studded canopy that was no less awesome than the sunset that had preceded it. 

Ben finally spoke, “I never knew all the details surrounding Luke’s departure from Tatooine. The old man had mentioned Ben Kenobi, Obi-Wan. That shook me somewhat. Not what he said so much, just how he said it; what was behind it. I knew Luke had left with him and had some rudimentary training from him.”

“Kenobi had been a Jedi Knight, and a General during the Clone Wars. My mother’s adoptive father had thought very highly of him. I suppose that’s why they named me for him. Or at least gave me the name he had taken in his exile.” He continued by way of explanation.

“I hadn’t known about his aunt and uncle dying, at least not like that. And when I saw him then… Luke just couldn’t wait to get away from this planet and for a very brief moment I had sensed his… relief… that he could now leave and then his horror at what he had just felt about the people who had raised him.”  

Ben shook his head sadly. “I was so angry at him for what he did to me. I never considered what had happened to him, what he had been through. Everyone seemed to be so keen to preserve or promulgate a certain narrative around him. If only he had told me. If he had sat me down that first day after I had been sent to him and admitted that the dark side had been something he too had felt every day then it may have been easier.”

“He wasn’t perfect, no one is. But he bitterly regretted what happened.” Rey said. 

Luke’s words on Crait rung in Ben's ears. _I failed you, Ben._

Ben looked up to the stars, as if to direct his words in to the infinity of space. “I know, and I regret not having been able to acknowledge that when I had the chance.” 

“I hated him too for what he did,” Rey admitted. “After he stumbled on us… I fought him. Demanded the truth. I thought that I could bring you back then.” She sniffed, wondering what might have been had things gone the way she had hoped they might all those years ago.

Thinking back to that awful day Ben hugged her close. She had endured so much to prove to him how she felt and her belief that Ben Solo was not truly gone. But, like the idiot he was, he had to push too far, and push her away. It had been the look on her face as she closed the hatch on the Falcon that had finally drove home to him what he had to do. No matter how hard it would be, no matter what sacrifices he would have to make, he would do anything to have her look at him again the way she had as she got to her feet with her saber in her hand.

He released her hand and wrapped his arm around her,“No, but you did set things in motion. It broke my heart, but it needed to be done so I knew I still had one.”

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I'm juggling (figuratively) children and work and writing, I'm averaging about ten days between chapter postings rather than once a week as I had originally hoped. I'm also working on another entry for the After Truffles collection which has turned into a bit of a behemoth but I hope to have posted in the next few days, the aforementioned  
> children and work permitting.
> 
> In any event, many thanks to everyone who has read, left kudos and/or commented on the work.

As far back as he could remember, the Eldest had singled A’Yaran out for special attention. Not one member of the tribe resented him for this. Life for A’Yaran wasn’t any easier for it; he was just afforded a little more leeway to go off on his own and was permitted to visit the Eldest whenever he pleased. For her part she would summon him when the whim took her which meant that he had to endure her annoyance more than most.

The recent storm had been unseasonably violent and had lasted far longer than usual. Then, without warning, it had ended as suddenly as it had started. A’Yaran wasn’t generally prone to superstition but that the storm had followed hard on the heels of his discovering that someone was moving into the old hut made him wonder if the two events were somehow connected.

He had set out early on the first clear morning as instructed and followed his usual route north. He was nearing the house when he heard the roar of an engine starting up and was just in time to see a speeder leaving with three figures aboard. It dropped down off the edge of the outcropping on which the house stood and sped away in an easterly direction; towards Bestine he supposed.

A’Yaran waited a few minutes more before emerging from behind the rock formation that had afforded him some cover while observing the departing speeder.

Beside the house stood a starship. It was an awesome sight. A’Yaran had often seen them taking off from or on approach to the larger settlements such as Mos Eisley or Bestine. This ship, however, was like nothing he had ever seen before. It was a sleek vessel and bore no resemblance to the haphazard collection of barely space-worthy parts that comprised the starships he was familiar with; it truly looked like it belonged in the air.

Taken with the ship’s elegant form he found himself drawn towards it and ran a gloved hand along its smooth grey hull. There were a few minor dents and scratches on its underside as well some carbon scoring; but it was still an impressive sight; how a starship ought to look.

He made his way over to the house and peered in at the windows. There wasn’t much to see. Through the nearest window he looked in on a small room which appeared to be for sleeping. It was sparsely decorated apart from an old pilot’s helmet, not unlike ones he saw in junk shops in Mos Eisley.

He then moved around to the other side of the building to find another window. There was a portion of the building that curved out from the main structure that had a window in it.He saw a large room containing a few pieces of simple furniture, along with a pile of books and papers. On the floor was a large woven rug in a monochrome pattern similar to the ones the women in the tribe would make to cover the ground in their tents. A squat blue and white droid was sitting in a corner; it was immobile, and made no indication that it had detected him. All the same, he withdrew slowly and carefully before continuing his regular pilgrimage.

 

Later, as the daylight began to ebb, and A’Yaran made his way back to the camp, he found himself following his usual route that took him right past the house; old habits were hard to break. The speeder was back and so too must be the new inhabitants. 

He wasn’t sure why he did it but something drew him towards the building. He crept closer to the window to the larger room to see if he could find out what these newcomers looked like.

He was about a metre away when a face suddenly appeared in the window; looking straight at him. The face was round, and framed by dark curls. But the skin was an unnatural blue and the eyes were as red and intense as glowing embers.

A’Yaran recoiled; the face had a terrifying, savage beauty to it. Its owner then stuck its tongue out at him. He fell backwards in shock and the strange creature appeared to laugh at him. He shook his head in terror, turned over and scrambled upright. Not caring what appearance it might give; he ran as fast as he could. Unheard, yet imagined laughter rang in his ears.

 

 

* * *

 

 

At nearly ninety cycles old, an unheard of age for a Tusken, A’Yark was no longer able to get about as before and now relied on A’Yaran to act as her eyes and ears in the outside world; an arena that was of little interest to the other Elders of the tribe so long as it didn’t encroach on them and their activities. Compared to A’Yark the other Elders were practically children; they didn’t remember, as she did, the years of hostilities between the Tuskens and Settlers that the vile Hutt, Jabba, had stoked simply to make money out of a surplus of otherwise worthless, obsolete blasters. Emboldening the Settlers to encroach further into the Tuskens’ ancestral lands. Jabba had been dead nearly forty cycles and his death seemed to presage a turning point for the Tuskens.

A’Yark’s interest in the settlers’ comings and goings was longstanding and unquestioned. Not long after the Hutt’s demise many Settlers had withdrawn from Tatooine, drawn back to the Galactic Core for reasons best known to themselves.

A’Yark cared little for their motivations; her duty was to her people and she had seen her tribe, if not flourish, then at least survive, over the last fifty or so cycles where others had not. Some had disappeared, others’ numbers had dwindled to only a few and subsumed into other tribes such as their own. Mean while the settlers had kept to themselves and their ugly towns.

Their tribe’s numbers had remained largely static; as some members were claimed by age or misadventure, children were born to replace them and so things had continued in relative “peace” as the settlers would say.

A’Yark had eventually come to tolerate the presence of the settlers on Tatooine. The remaining few no longer pushed out into the desert, dotting it all over with their vaporators. But this state of affairs did not necessarily bode well. Things had a habit of changing without notice, and often to no good end. Just as previously calm and safe sands might suddenly shift to reveal a young Sarlacc; ravenous and insatiable.

One such event had occurred nearly twenty cycles ago, though its full effects had still not made themselves known.

 

 

It was the first clear night in well over a fortnight and A’Yark had hobbled out of her tent, just as the suns dropped below the peaks that bounded the camp settling down by the nearest fire. This was a rare enough event that some of the smaller children had pointed in awe and tentatively shuffled towards her. They were soon joined by some of the older children.

A’Yaran had set out early in the day to investigate the newcomers who had been so bold as to claim the Jedi’s home. A’Yark had been incredulous when he had first reported activity at the hut. It had lain empty and unclaimed for nearly forty cycles and she was unusually impatient for him to return with news.

She sat, ramrod straight, and looked up at the heavens. The tribe’s camp was situated at the end of a valley within the Jundland Wastes. Tall cliffs formed a natural barricade around them. In years gone by it would have left them exposed to attack from the peaks but no one now came to trouble them. The scouts who patrolled, keeping an eye out for would-be attackers, grew old waiting for battles that never came. Nor were they inclined to seek them out anymore.

Their location in the valley also meant that they didn’t have a view of the horizon, but A’Yark was not so interested in the path of the suns; The Brothers’ eternal flight and pursuit was of no concern to her. It was the transit of Tatooine’s three moons that had demanded her attention for over fifteen cycles.

The children had shuffled even closer now. They knew from experience that an Elder by the fire was usually good for at least one story before their mothers hastened them to their tents and bed rolls. And a tale told by A’Yark, the eldest of them, ever, would be a rare treat indeed.

A’Yark smiled indulgently, remembering other children, long since claimed by first death and now time. She nodded to her audience and shifted herself slightly so as to face them and the fire. She reached out and threw another piece of wood on it, signalling that a story was about to begin. The flames licked at the wood leapt high, the light catching the red gem A’Yark had placed in one eye socket many years before. One or two of the younger children gasped in surprise to be quickly hushed by their elders.

She waited a moment before beginning, partially to ensure she had their attention, but also to prolong their anticipation.

“You all know the tale of the Two Brothers; how the younger had committed an act so terrible that the elder felt compelled to kill him and yet failed. The children nodded eagerly.

“I will not tell you of them for their tale is no longer relevant to us. We have learnt from them and taken their lessons to heart; we cover our faces, we hide and sometimes we attack.

A’Yark paused and looked at the group of children; she remembered each of them as newborns being swaddled against the harsh, piercing rays of the suns. As each in turn had had their faces covered, perhaps forever; a prison of sorts they carried around with them though they knew it not.

“Tonight, I shall tell you of the Three Sisters.”

The children held their breath as one, this was a tale none of them had heard before. Assured that she had their undivided attention A’Yark began her story.

 

“Many hundreds of cycles ago, a mighty tribe lived at the edge of the Western Dune Sea. Their leader was strong and fearless and had three daughters.

“Ghomrassen, the eldest sister was her father’s favourite. She was devout and bold. As a young girl she dressed as a warrior and felled the Greater Krayt Dragon that had had preyed on the tribe and injured her father. When the other warriors fell back she alone strode out into dunes and dispatched the beast with a single stroke of her father’s gaderfi. Its skeleton was left where it fell as a relic and reminder of her bravery.”

There was a murmur from the children, they all knew of that skeleton; it lay along the top of a prominent sand dune. They’d often wondered why it had been left there. Ordinarily when a Krayt dragon was slain not a single bone nor sinew of it would be left; the tribe had a use for every single part of any creature they hunted or bred.

“Guermessa, the middle sister was her mother’s favourite. She was silly and flighty. When their mother died Ghomrassen tried to look after Guermessa but she was easily led and would echo the sentiments of others as it was easier than knowing or using her own mind.

“Lastly there was Chenini who came later, she did not share a mother with Ghomrassen and Guermessa.

“Chenini was sly and vain and supplanted Ghomrassen in her father’s affections but Ghomrassen did not care. She was a grown woman now and desired to make her own way in the world.

“And so she did for a time but Chenini was still jealous of her sister and her standing in the tribe as her father’s eldest, and in place of her mother, she was afforded the respect of the first matriarch. So she conspired with Guermessa to kill Ghomrassen.

“They told her that they had found a wondrous thing to behold in the desert and took her far out into the Western Dune Sea. They plied her with sweet water that they had tainted. Sent into a deep sleep they pulled the coverings from her face and body and cast her, naked, out into the middle of the desert where they left her.”

The children gasped at the heresy of being completely uncovered, forcibly or otherwise. A Tusken’s dress was an integral part of their psyche. They covered themselves as they did, not just out of practicality but as a form of deep seated cultural atonement for some past misdeed of their ancestors. There might be a time when they no longer would need to observe the ritual but none of them expected it to be in their lifetimes.

"The Eldest Brother saw her in the sand and took pity on her. He set her in the heavens and cast his light upon her and she began to follow him eager to learn from him. The younger Brother saw her light and fell in madly in love with her and began to pursue her, now she dances between the two brothers, the one who saved her and the one who loves her. Torn between gratitude for one and desire for the other she follows a complex path.”

 

There was a long pause. The children looked to one another, one child nudged another; seemingly the group's designated spokesperson.

“What about the other sisters what happened to them?” The girl asked hesitantly.

At that moment A’Yark spied A’Yaran approaching.

“That tale can wait until another evening,” she replied with finality.

The children were wise enough make no further demands; A’Yark’s utterance was as good as a promise and if the first tale was anything to go by the subsequent story should be just as engaging.

A’Yark pulled herself up from the ground and shuffled back into her tent. She found that someone had left her some water and food. She settled herself down on a flat pillow stuffed Bantha hair and took a drink of water, her throat was dry after talking for so long. She usually kept to herself and rarely spoke if she could help it.

 

A short time later A’Yaran entered the tent; from his stance she could tell something was bothering him.

“Well?” A'Yark barked. “What manner of people are they then?”

A’Yaran didn’t reply immediately, instead he fidgeted with his bandolier.

“Speak!” She commanded.

The boy shifted uneasily. A’Yark was rapidly loosing patience with this uncharacteristic behaviour, she relied on A’Yaran for his pragmatic nature, he was not one to give in to superstition or prevaricate.

“Are demons real?” A’Yaran suddenly demanded.

It was A’Yark’s turn to pause; that was not at all what she expected to hear from him.

“What?”

“Those stories, the ones you used to tell us when we were little about the demon who lived in the wind and caused sand storms to make mischief.” He elaborated as he began to pace in the small space of the tent.

A’Yark scoffed. “Of course they aren’t real, they are just amusingly scary stories used to explain phenomena to children. Why?”

“Because I saw one.”

A’Yark tilted her head to one side. She knew, although A’Yaran hadn’t told her himself, that hehad been known to visit the towns of the settlers. Had he been drinking in their cantinas as well? Or had he had too much sun, or fallen while climbing and knocked all reason out of his head?

“I saw a creature, that looked exactly like you had described.” A’Yaran elaborated.

A’Yark was incredulous. “Really?”

“Yes! A round face, like an angel,” he stammered. “But as blue as the sky, and eyes that were a fiery red, like The Brothers at high noons.”

Though she could not smell any alcohol on his breath or clothes, she still had difficulting believing any such being actually existed.

She indicated the meal that had been left for her. “Eat!” she commanded. “Gather your wits and then tell me what else you’ve discovered today.”

He sat down and composed himself. He took a drink of the water and ate a small piece of flat bread. The food and drink seemed to help him return to himself. After a few moments he spoke again, his voice no longer had that edge of tenseness that annoyed A’Yark.

“I went and checked on the house as you asked. I saw the Settlers who are there now leave in their speeder as I approached. They’ve made the house bigger as I said before. They have a ship as well, a starship.”

That was curious. A’Yark knew of no settlers who kept an actual starship on their property. To have such a vehicle at their disposal they must clearly be of better means than most who came to Tatooine. But to then choose to isolate themselves from the others of their kind by living up in such a remote location. It seemed like utter madness, but then A’Yark had never understood what motivated any settlers to voluntarily come to such a demanding world as Tatooine in the first place.

 

“How many are their number?” She snapped.

“Three, I think it’s a family.”

This was even more curious, settlers with children most certainly did not live in the wilderness.

“So when did you see this demon?”

“On my way back, I noticed that the speeder had returned so I thought I might take a closer look at them.”

That was a foolhardy thing to do A’Yark thought to herself. The chances of being spotted were too high.

“And?”

“I looked in at the window and it was there looking out of the window, right at me. A sand demon just as you used to describe.”

“And yet it did not raise an alarm?”

“No.”

“Very well. Go, get some rest. I need to think on this.”

A’Yaran stood and exited the tent. He made his way to his own small shelter. It contained just a simple bedroll, stuffed with bantha hair. He pulled off his bandolier and satchel. He lay down and pulled his cloak around himself. He was tired but found he was unable to sleep.

He squeezed his eyes shut but all he was still haunted by a pair of laughing crimson eyes.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My initial plan to post updates every week to ten days has alas been somewhat exploded due to a perfect storm of work, child wrangling and a slight case of writers' block. I have, roughly, plotted out (most of the) whole story, getting from some plot points to the next is proving tricky - especially when trying to post regularly ;-)
> 
> I'm also dealing with a bit of a beast of a short story that sprang to life from a line of dialogue in chapter 12.

“This whole thing stinks more than Bantha shit!” 

Kaydel Ko Connix tossed a data pad and scanner down on to a low table in Finn and Rose’s living area once she’d finished her usual sweep for bugs. They clattered and spun on the glass top before coming to a rest next to a wooden bowl. Usually, calm and collected, even when on the surface of a planet about to experience a massive barrage from a First Order dreadnaught, Kaydel was uncharacteristically annoyed and tense as she paced up and down before the table.

“What do you mean?” Rose asked as she entered from the kitchen area and handed Kaydel a mug of hot, steaming khav. She briefly considered whether giving her friend caffeine in her current state was such a good idea. Kaydel accepted the drink gratefully; she couldn’t remember the last time she had managed to drink an entire mug of khav while it was still hot.

“Arkanis. They are up to something but I can’t figure out what exactly. Their senator is letting his juniors run riot; practically hijacking routine meetings, blathering on about inane topics or matters that have been long settled _and_ ratified.”

Rose nodded, that sounded about par for the course for the delegation from Arkanis. One of the aforementioned juniors had that very morning submitted a funding request to the mining commission committee Poe had asked her her to chair. The attached paperwork had been patchy at best, with vast swathes of redacted text. Given its incomplete nature she had, on principle, put the request to the bottom of the pile without reading it. But now she was inclined to cast her eye over it as soon as possible.

Kaydel took a reviving sip of her drink, her shoulders relaxed slightly, but only briefly. Her face clouded again, and she resumed pacing.

“And his _wife_ …” Kaydel grimaced. “She’s forever making snide remarks to the partners of other Senators, to anyone who will listen really. About the Senate High Council’s ‘worrying choices’. I suspect she’s the one who started the chatter about Rey.” Almost as soon as she had uttered these last few words she instantly regretted it. Stress was making her sloppy.

“What’s that about Rey?” Asked Finn emerging from Paige’s room with a his small daughter perched on his shoulders.

“Rey here? And Ben?” The small child piped up, hopefully.

 

Even though she had only met Rey and Ben a few times Paige was inordinately fond of them. To Finn’s surprise Ben had, without complaint, spent nearly an entire evening just before they had left for Tatooine, sitting on the floor of their apartment with Paige while she jabbered away at him. She had showed him how to (properly) stack wooden blocks and introduced him to her array of stuffed creatures: from a fat Porg with a permanently shocked expression, to an overstuffed fuzzy Ewok.

“You know, an Ewok would eat you given half a chance.” Ben had whispered to her almost conspiratorially.

“Ben!” Rey had admonished while prodding him with her foot. But Paige, possessing the macabre tendencies common to most small children, had been delighted at this piece of information.

“It’s true!” Ben had insisted, turning to look up at Rey. “They nearly cooked my father _and_ my uncle as the main course of a feast in honour of Threepio.” He added turning back to Paige, who gazed at him in rapt attention.

Ari’li, who had been helping set the dining table, snorted with amusement while Paige had burst into squeals of laughter. Finn had struggled too to stifle a laugh; the idea of Threepio being fêted by short, bloodthirsty creatures in such a manner was just too absurd.

Rey had looked askance at Ben. “I don’t, for one minute, believe that ever happened.” She said, shaking her head.

“My mother would hardly make up a story like that.” Ben had retorted.

“Oh I don’t know,” Rey returned, “I can imagine she might. To put your father in his place.”

“It would only have worked if it were true.” Ben had pointed out with a shrug.

 

Finn smiled to himself, as he recalled the scene. It had been a particularly pleasant evening. Ben and Rey along with Ari’li had come over for a pot luck meal, and had brought a traditional Alderaanian casserole which Ben had made. With Hux in custody and looking forward to a fresh start, they had been more at ease than he had ever known them and Finn found himself wishing they hadn’t had to leave so soon.

Kaydel shifted awkwardly, reluctant to say more in earshot of a child who was of an age to innocently repeat whatever she had overheard.

“No, sorry honey, she’s still away.” Finn said apologetically. Sensing that this was a conversation he wanted to be part of, he added, “I think you are overdue for a nap little one.”

He returned a few moments later, shutting the door on some affronted howls and helped himself to the end of the khav. He settled down in his favourite chair - a battered old specimen they’d found in a sub-basement - across from the sofa where Rose was sitting.

“Now, what’s this about Rey?” His voice was like steel, a far cry from the warm tone he had employed moments earlier when dealing with Paige. He gripped his mug tightly in anticipation of a reply that was likely not to please him.

Kaydel sighed and dropped down on to the sofa beside Rose. She took another, longer drink, while she arranged her thoughts.

“You did not hear this from me, and you are certainly _not_ to do or say anything to indicate that you are aware of it.” She said finally.

Finn and Rose both nodded. “Of course. You know you can rely on us to be discreet.” Rose assured her.

A few seconds passed before Kaydel began, her voice taut.

“A few months ago, not long before Ben and Rey went to Canto Bight, Poe received a… suggestion, shall we call it. A small delegation of senators raised the possibility that Rey should face a select hearing regarding her involvement with Kylo Ren going back to Takodana.”

That Kaydel, or rather this delegation had referred to him as Kylo Ren, and not Ben Solo was telling in itself. Finn’s jaw set and he gripped his mug even tighter. He was angry for Rey and even for Ben, which he found jarring.

“But that’s absurd! What _possible_ reason could they have to suspect her of collusion?” He finally managed to splutter.

Connix put her khav down on the table. She turned it slightly so the handle was parallel with the table’s edge.

“They consider their Force Bond to be highly suspicious. They also say she went to easily with him and likewise escaped too easily from her confinement. And she apparently hadn’t even been touched by him or anyone; in a marked contrast to Poe’s experiences on the Finaliser.”

Finn slammed his mug down. Khav splashed on to the table.

“That’s Bantha shit! I saw him carry her off, she did _not_ go _willingly_.”

He cast his mind back to that dreadful day, recalling the sheer panic as he had watched Kylo Ren carry Rey on to his shuttle. He had held her like she was the most precious thing in the universe, just as he’d carried Rose over the threshold of their apartment after their wedding. But even from his vantage point he could tell that Rey was unconscious. It had been an abduction, plain and simple.

Thinking back on that scene now, he wondered how much of Ben was already struggling to come to the fore at that point, just as he had wondered the other evening about the lack of retribution over his own inaction in Tuanul. Ren could have easily killed Rey and captured BB-8 but, for some reason, he hadn’t. He shook the thought way, there was no point dwelling on trying to read into events nearly half a decade old. What had happened, had happened and they all needed to move forward. Nor did he much relish reliving those events that had brought him so much fame and praise. His actions back then still had a dash of selfishness and self-preservation to them. Had he not been so intent to flee to the Outer Rim Rey might never had been captured, but then again if she had not would they have ultimately won the day?

Kaydel nodded, and carried on. “They also take issue with the reports of her first duel with him. Wondering how she, with her background and lack of training, could have possibly bested him.”

Finn heaved a deep sigh and pursed his lips. He had been badly injured during own his attempt to fend off Ren and was unconscious at the time of Rey and Kylo’s duel and so was unable to vouch for what exactly had happened. The official report was based solely on Rey’s and then later, Ben’s testimony. What could Ben had had to gain from lying, besides his life? Finn himself had witnessed Rey easily subdue two attackers with her staff; she was a skilled fighter either way you looked at it. And with Ben badly injured, and he suspected, in deepening shock, he’d have put his credits on Rey any day of the week.

“Then there are the events leading up to and on the events on the Supremacy and her decision to leave him alive.” Kaydel continued wearily shaking her head.

“Look, I will be the first to admit that I did not initially like their… relationship.” Finn said. “But killing Ben on the Supremacy would have done nothing to improve the situation. It would have left Hux in charge and I shudder to think what the outcome would have been then.” Hux certainly had no Jedi uncle who could have turned up at precisely the right moment to rile him into a duel and provide enough of a distraction so they could escape.

Kaydel raised her hands. “I know! I know! Believe me I feel the way you do. You will be happy to know that the Council shut this all down pretty rapidly. Had they stayed on Yavin it might have gained more traction. But I don’t think it ever really had much to begin with.”

Rose frowned. “How so?”

She had remained silent during Kaydel and Finn’s exchange. She hadn’t known Rey before her initial run in with Kylo Ren as Finn had, so her own take on their relationship was very different from her husband’s. She knew she didn’t know all the details, nor did she expect to, it was their personal life after all and should be considered private. When she first met Rey that inexplicable bond with Ben had already been forged.

But she knew them. It was clear that Rey trusted him implicitly and that he was devoted to her. The Ben that had left a few weeks before had already changed, evolved even, so much from the Ben who had returned with her a year prior, willingly, to face trial. He was still withdrawn at times, and avoided large gatherings if he could, but there were moments when she caught glimpses of the person she imagined the son of General Organa and Han Solo might be. Self-assured, yet self-deprecating, with a bit of a temper that he valiantly kept in check, and a dry, flippant sense of humour. But most importantly of all, as far as Rose was concerned, he was kind and patient with Ari’li and Paige.

There had to come a point when a line was drawn under what had happened in the past and let it go so everyone could move on with their lives. Fixating on the past wasn’t going to help the dead, or the living no matter what some might think. Ben himself would carry the guilt of his misdeeds with him forever; it was a better prison than any other and a worse fate than a quick death. She looked up and caught Finn’s eye. It was clear that he was of much the same opinion as she was.

Kaydel shrugged.

“I think it’s all of a piece. In the main no one really questions Rey’s loyalty, nor Ben’s for that matter. Respect for his mother and father still carry a lot of weight, but more importantly his own actions over the past few years have done more for his reputation than I think he realises.”

"I’m just finding a pattern of… shit stirring for the sake of it to just set things off kilter. And most of it appears to lead back to Arkanis somehow.”

Rose’s mind drifted back to the report, if there was any question of shady dealings going on, she was most certainly going to read it later that evening.

Finn leaned forward “Do you think they are going to make a push for a power grab of some kind? They were rather prominent within the Separatist faction a decade or so ago.”

“No, nothing so drastic. Just enough to be a distraction from something else perhaps. Which believe me I’m on the look out for but there’s been nothing as yet that stands out.”

Another, horrible, thought struck Rose. “Do you think this might be linked in anyway to their ship being sabotaged a few months back?”

Kaydel shook her head. “The investigation didn’t turn up anything untoward.” She didn’t mention that she had some misgivings regarding the findings or lack thereof of the investigation, on one hand she was inclined to put it down to low grade paranoia due to not enough sleep. On the other she trusted her gut that something was amiss. Instead she added, “We’ve put extra security measures in place. And so far, there’s been nothing out of the ordinary. I don’t want us getting complacent, but it’s a fine balancing act between playing it safe and paranoia.”

Rose was increasingly concerned for Kaydel; she had been going flat out for weeks now, and she was pretty sure she wasn’t getting much in the way of sleep, or decent meals.

Kaydel picked up her mug and took another drink while she gazing off into the middle distance. She found herself musing aloud, “Then there are these recurring headaches of Poe’s. Kalonia can’t seem to find anything that might be causing it.”

Rose cast Finn a concerned glance. He had mentioned to her that Poe had been suffering from headaches, but had described them as intermittent. Just how long had these headaches been going on for?

Kaydel shook her head in an effort to clear her mind. “Anyway, I’m veering off topic, sorry.I did some digging based on your report on the dinner.”

“Anything useful?” Rose asked.

“Nothing that jumps out, but so often with these things it’s a case of waiting for a critical piece of information or hoping for the other party to make a move, foolish or otherwise, that causes everything to fall in place. And hoping it happens while you can still do something meaningful about it.”

Kaydel replaced her mug on the table and reached for her data pad. She keyed in one of her typically long password to unlock it and opened up the document containing the notes she’d made.

“The handmaiden checks out, she’s been with them for well over a decade. There have been no complaints about her. ” Rose looked disappointed, she was certain there was something not entirely right about the handmaiden.

“That niece, though, _is_ interesting.” Kaydel added.

Rose raised an eyebrow, _interesting_ was the last word she would have used to describe Lady Arinndis’ simpering echo.

“Seems her family is even older than the Senator’s, one of the Elder houses with ties to other worlds in the sector, though trying to find out anything further is proving difficult. Our own archives are pretty fragmented but I’ve got some feelers out to try and dig up information. I can’t do anything directly without alerting Arkanis that some one is taking an interest.

“Maz Katana has put me in contact with an old acquaintance of hers. She has a very dubious reputation, or at least she had in the past. She’s supposedly gone ‘respectable’. But Maz rates her abilities and said she had a talent for finding things that people might otherwise want to keep hidden. So I’m hoping she’s not too respectable now, or is willing to let the facade slip just this once.”

“And the mining data?”

“Not much more on that, seems they had put in a request for information from our archives to find some historical survey reports. But again, with so much missing, we didn’t have anything useful to give them.”

Rose visibly deflated, the evening really had been a total wash-out, however Kaydel held up one finger, her eyes flashing as she gave a small smile.

“But interestingly the elder niece, the one who you mentioned was deceased, came up when I widened the survey data search to to include academic projects and personnel.”

Rose leaned forward, “That is a curious overlap. What did you find out?”

“Not a huge amount.” Kaydel replied, somewhat resigned to never having the complete picture.

“Again with so much information lost with Hosnian Prime and a number of the redundant archives either destroyed or looted by the First Order. We are still trying to decrypt what the ones we managed to salvage.” She explained as she scrolled to another page on her data pad.

“What little I could discover in the public domain is that the last contact from was roughly twenty years ago. She was a geologist, which is why she was flagged; her speciality was large scale crystalline deposit formation and the conditions for planetary crystalline bedrock formation. She was married to an Alderaanian called Nico Eforos.”

“Was he a geologist as well?” Finn asked.

Kaydel shook her head.

“No, he was an anthropologist. Specialising in…Folk tales.”

“Maybe what they are trying to find is a report of hers?” Rose suggested.

Kaydel nodded, “That it’s a possibility. The family link can’t be a coincidence. I’ll ask my contact to focus on that connection. It sounds like a thread worth tugging on.”

At the word thread Rose then suddenly remembered the needle and thread she’d found tucked in to the cape sent from Aurelia.

“I have got something, but you might thing it a little far fetched and I don’t know if it has anything to do with the issue at hand.” Rose explained as she jumped up from the sofa.

She ducked into the bedroom returned a moment later with the length of thread. She sat back down beside Kaydel and showed her the thread.

“Look at that, black and white thread in a pink cape? I thought it had to be a message of some kind.”

As Kaydel took the short length of silk, a thin smile with a hint of admiration crept over her face.

“Clever, very clever. Something that would never be picked up by scanners.”

“I’m not sure what it means though.” Rose said with a hint of doubt.

“Whatever it is, it will be important” Kaydel assured her as she held the thread up and peered closely at it.“Invigio is exceptionally astute. He wouldn’t send a message unless he was perfectly certain the lead was sound.”

She squinted closely at the pattern on the thread.

“Damn, my binary isn’t as good as I’d like it to be. Or having my first full mug of khav in weeks has made me a bit too jittery.” She grinned. “I’ll take this with me and let you know you what I come up with.”

 

 

Kaydel wended her way back to her office deep in the heart of the communications hub. She strode past banks of screens and the hunched figures of technicians, bathed in the milky glow from their terminals, who monitored the various data networks day and night. One or two looked up as she approached and nodded brief unseen salutations before returning to their work.

She was so caught up mulling over the myriad tasks that would fill the rest of her working day, that she noticed neither the greetings of her team, nor the slim figure in grey slipping out of one of the side offices and the signal array technician, who followed shortly afterwards, self-consciously straightening a slightly crumpled jacket before carrying on in the opposite direction.

Once in her office, Kaydel sat down at her desk and called up an info sheet on binary encoding.It struck her as funny, and yet slightly infuriating, how much basic information she seemed to have forgotten when she had moved in to a more senior position.

She extracted the thread from her pocket and laid it down before the keyboard. On closer inspection she determined that the monochrome pattern was repeated three times. Now it was a case of determining _what_ was repeated three times, and then figuring out its significance. She ran through the Aurebesh character encodings, none matched. It required too many bits per letter.

Kaydel sat back and considered the message’s sender. Ingivio, she knew, had trained on Naboo and had trained with some of the couturiers who had earlier dressed Queen Amidala. That was a possible in. She then called up the encodings for Futhork the script commonly used on Naboo. Again she ran into the bit length problem.

Undeterred she called up the encodings for Futhark; the more ancient, formal Nabooan script. The corner of her mouth twitched with satisfaction as she reviewed the data.

She ran down the list of letters and their encodings, mentally converting strings of ones and zeroes to black and white marks, until she found a match. ‘V’ repeated three times. With the Arkansas delegation at the forefront of her thoughts she immediately latched on Valarian. It might be reaching somewhat, but it could work. Three Vs? She knew there had been two sisters. Was there possibly a third? It was certainly worth looking into, assuming archive didn’t let them down again, but there might be ways around that.

She swivelled her chair around to face, another, more industrial looking computer terminal, and brought up a secure comms channel; keying in a ridiculously long string of characters to enable a new one time pad. Hopefully Maz would be able to see if her contact with the previously colourful reputation could add another little item to the “shopping list”.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't intend for it to be three months between updates!  
> Due to various things that's the way it panned out. I'm sincerely hoping that it won't take me three months to post the next chapter.  
> This chapter has been edited to pieces and is actually half of the original chapter 12, it has not been beta'd so if there are any glaring issues or wobbliness of grammar it is all due to me needing to just get it posted.

Ben was sleeping soundly when Rey woke the next morning. She was taken aback by this rare occurrence. Although he had gradually begun to sleep better over the last few years - the night terrors that had often roused them both were thankfully consigned to the past - he had remained a light sleeper and woke before her. Clearly yesterday, as traumatic as it had been had had its cathartic aspect - helping dispel some more of the lingering demons, though she suspected he would never fully be rid of them, nor allow himself to be.

With no pressing reason to immediately rouse herself, Rey allowed her eyes to fall closed again and found her mind drifting back to the previous evening. They had remained up on the roof long into the evening. They hadn’t said very much more; they hadn’t needed to. Instead, they had sat leaning against each other, her arm hooked around his while she gently held his right hand in both of hers, reluctant to let go, yet mindful of the healing burns. So they had stayed, silently marvelling together at the awesome sight of the heavens above them as spare, precious clouds began to coalesce in the cool evening air.

Rey had not made a habit of sitting out much after nightfall on Jakku. It was not a particularly wise thing to do. Even The Sitter would descend from his perch at sunset to spend the night somewhere else less exposed. While the fallen AT-AT was remote enough to dissuade any unwanted nocturnal visitors from dropping by, it could get dangerously cold surprisingly rapidly and she didn’t possess anythingthat could pass as warm clothing beyond a small blanket she had made from scraps of scrounged fabric and bits of her old, out-grown clothing that had been too worn or damaged to trade.

A far cry from now however. She was no longer that bitterly lonely girl doomed to live the same, arduous, soul-crushing day day over and over. The last five years had been tumultuous to say the least but she had finally found the belonging that Maz had foreseen for her; albeit very different from the one she had craved up until that fateful day.And now, here, far away from Yavin they could, for a little while at least, shed the twin mantles of legacy and expectations that had threatened to suffocate them. Here, they could be Ben and Rey alone.

Rey opened her eyes again and stared at the ceiling. Ben’s arm was reassuringly heavy slung across her. She idly wondered what had happened to her old blanket as her hands grasped and twisted the edge of the light bed covers. She sighed. In her heart she knew she wasn’t going to be able to put off properly looking at the texts for very much longer.

She had been quite masterful, over the last few weeks, in her ability to find other, more pressing things that required her attention. The first few days immediately after their arrival she had spent rearranging the contents of kitchen cupboards and then the storage bins in the basement.

And then, while they had been sequestered in the house, it felt antisocial to shut herself away, pouring over books and so she had happily thrown herself into any and all group activities going such as playing Sabacc with Ben and Ari’li. Part of her knew that the R5 unit was yet another attempt on her part at putting off the inevitable. Eventually she was going to run out of displacement activities, or Ben would realise what she was doing and mention it. If he didn’t already know which really she knew he must.

A mad notion flitted in to her head only to be dismissed as rapidly as she admonished herself for that indulgent, selfish thought. No, she told herself, a child was not a good idea; at least not right now, assuming it was even possible. A small knot formed in her chest; Ari’li was growing up so quickly, they had missed so much of the last year, and before they knew it she’d be ready to return to Yavin and begin flight training, assuming that that was still her plan.

They had pointedly taken precautions to avoid any surprises but lately she’d found herself musing on what it might be like, and what they might be like. She found the thought that their child might be tinged with the same darkness as Ben didn’t bother her as much as she suspected it did others, she recognised that she had that same tendency as well. She was certain they could learn from the failures of their own parents, while no doubt making mistakes of their own along the way.

A pang of guilt assailed Rey and she stole a glance at Ben, half expecting to find him awake, his dark eyes meeting hers, boring into her, knowing full well what she had been thinking. He was on his side, curled towards her. His eyelids occasionally fluttering as he dreamt. He, at least had found some modicum of peace; hard won, and at great cost to more than just himself.

With a sigh, Rey pushed the thoughts away. They were bittersweet musings, forbidden fruit, best kept to herself. Right now there were the needs other people, just as intangible but hopefully not as hypothetical, to consider.

She _had_ to come up with some sort of plan or idea. Not so that the Republic would have a new Jedi Order, modelled on the one of old, at its disposal - on that point she agreed whole heartedly with Luke. The new government would have to deal with its own problems and not look to a group of Force users to effectively bail them out with handwaving and laser swords; enforcing a government mandated notion of peace and justice. But for the benefit of those children like herself and Ben; frightened, troubled children, alone or otherwise who found themselves simultaneously blessed and cursed with access to a wellspring of power they didn’t understand. A power that threatened to overwhelm them and inspire fear in those around them. Hells, not even children but teenagers, adults even. She refused to believe that there was no one else in the whole galaxy, that all that remained were just the two of them and a few children on Canto Bight.

The cost of inaction or failure on her part felt so impossibly great and a dull ache began to encircle Rey’s head, possibly borne from stress or dehydration, or both. The headache was then joined by the faint and insistent, all too familiar nausea that came with an empty stomach. She urgently needed some food and a drink of water.

Gently, she lifted Ben’s arm and slid out from under the covers as quietly as possible so as to not disturb him. She padded out into the kitchen where she found Ari’li munching on some sliced fruit.

The younger girl gave her an appraising look that spoke volumes; she wasn’t the child they had found on another sand-bound world a few years earlier any more. She had seemed small for her age then, but now she was creeping up on Rey; her Chiss biology gearing up for another growth spurt. And she had always had a level of wisdom and insight far beyond her years.

 

“You’re up early,” Rey observed as she smoothed down her night shirt.

“It’s not _that_ early,” Ari’li replied with a faint smirk, her dark curls bouncing as she shook her head.

Rey detected that a certain amount of Ben’s deadpan humour was rubbing off on their adopted daughter.

“What time did you two come back in at in the end?”

“I honestly have no idea.” Rey shrugged as she helped herself to a piece of fruit from the bowl beside Ari’li. It was delicious; juicy, tart and very refreshing.

“Oh! That is really good,” She moaned, her mouth full. Ari’li had the good grace to remain silent as Rey blushed at the obscene sound she made. It was ironic to her that it was here, on a desert planet where the water had to be practically yanked out of the sky, that she tasted fruit better than any grown on Yavin with its humid climate and rampantly fertile ecosystem. She supposed that it owed something to the cultivars grown here having been specifically developed for their taste whereas Yavin’s own native fruit which grew on some quite vicious, even murderous, plants, didn’t rely on a pleasant tasting fruit for dissemination.

“It is, isn’t it,” Ari’li agreed as she sliced up another piece of fruit and added it to the others in the bowl.

“I downloaded the specs for that particular droid model yesterday evening.” She added in a mildly accusatory tone. Rey wondered, as she poured herself some water, if Ari’li had discovered that the R5 had been one of Industrial Automaton’s least popular models.

“Oh, Ok…Let’s have a look then.” She replied as nonchalantly as possible.

They sat down at the table and looked over the data Ari’li had found on the holonet while they ate. Rey noted wryly that Ari’li had indeed managed to find the scathing review. The girl raised an eyebrow while Rey had the good grace to look a little sheepish. She took a drink of her water before reassuring her.

“It will be fine. We can easily upgrade any parts if we have to. Tinker with the firmware or operating system.” Ari’li looked sceptical.

“It will. Trust me.” She reiterated before popped another piece of fruit in to her mouth. She sucked the sticky juice from her fingers, before enumerating the tasks ahead of them.

“The first thing you will need to do is completely disassemble the droid and give it a _really_ thorough cleaning. The sand on this planet seems to have some very strange properties.” Rey paused and frowned. “Plus a really annoying knack of getting everywhere!” She added as she brushed a few grains of the vexatious substance from table.

Ari’li grimaced, it sounded like a tedious prospect. In her head, getting the droid up and running had been just a simple matter of a quick clean and charge.

Rey smiled knowingly. “It _will_ be a bit tedious but it needs to be done if you are to have any hope of getting it functioning again. The poor thing looks like it’s been through the wars. I’ll help you if you like.”

“Yes please.” Ari’li nodded. “Even just to get me started so I know I’m doing it properly. I don’t want to keep you from your work on those Jedi books.”

Rey leaned back in her chair. It wasn’t a pointed remark but it still hit the mark. She immediately felt guilty for her reply which hovered somewhere between truthful and a downright lie.

“Believe me, I could do with the distraction. To be perfectly honest I don’t feel like I’m making much progress and I think a change of focus might help.” Eager to to steer the conversation away from the texts and all that they entailed, she continued, “We can get the diagnostic equipment out of The Orphan. It won’t take up much space in your room.”

“I didn’t realise we had that kind of stuff with us.”

“Oh yes, there’s a fully equipped, state of the art Astromech Bey opposite the guest room.” She rattled off like some cheery sales droid, complete with manic grin. It dawned on Rey that Artoo had never so much as used the charging station on the ship. She presumed he just wandered down to the main hanger on Yavin for power as and when he needed it. Even if they ultimately failed with getting the R5 unit working again they’d need the powering station for Artoo at _some_ point.

Ari’li frowned, “The _what?_ ”

Rey laughed, “Sorry, that’s what we called the stores.”

A wide grin broke across Ari’li’s face as realisation dawned. “Oh! Where you stashed people like Hux.”

“Exactly.”

“Ha! Serves him right!” Ari’li giggled to the point of snorting. The idea of Ben and Rey transporting the erstwhile, aspiring Supreme Leader in a cramped store cupboard was highly amusing to her. From what she had overheard about him, it was exactly the kind of come down someone like Hux deserved.

The corner of Rey’s mouth twitched as she recalled the events surrounding and just after his confinement. She shifted in her seat and hurriedly grabbed another piece of the delectable fruit. Ari’li didn’t know the half of it…

 

Once the remainder of the fruit was all eaten, Ari’li disappeared into her room while Rey put the bowl in the sink and snuck back into the bedroom to gather her clothes.

Ben was still dead to the world and now snoring slightly. _I knew it wasn’t just me_ , Rey thought to herself as she slowly and carefully opened various drawers and pulled out clean clothes: fresh under things, trousers, one of her sleeveless tunics, and a mottled green vest with a multitude of pockets. She smiled as she withdrew it and added to the bundle she clasped to herself. The vest was the first thing Ben had bought for her; though it had been months before he told her about it and even then only after it had first been used as porg bedding and then to staunch a particularly nasty abdominal wound she had received on a mission. She had eventually dyed it green to cover the bloodstains that had refused to shift. It hadn’t come out quite as solid a colour as she had intended but it had no effect on its usefulness, nor the thoughtfulness of the gift.

She cast Ben a last look before she retreated from the room. He had shifted slightly and had stopped snoring. A faint smile was pulling at the corner of his mouth and she briefly considered dropping everything and going back to bed. She was curious as to what was having such an effect on those plushy, kissable lips of his.

 _Focus, Rey. There is plenty of time for that later._ She admonished herself as she ducked in to the ‘fresher to wash andchange. She quickly dressed, pausing only to shimmy slightly to button up her trousers. The relative inactivity of the last few weeks, spent cooped up doing little more than sitting around and eating, was catching up on her. Now that the sandstorm had passed she was going to have start getting some proper exercise again.

Once she’d finished she descended the narrow stone steps into the basement. As with the main part of the house it too had been enlarged prior to their arrival, though it had been hewn from the rock on which the house stood. Most of the space was given over to a variety of storage bins containing food stuffs and other essentials.

Tucked away along one cool, rough wall was a workbench which had, so far, seen little use. Her tools from the AT-AT as well as some others were nearly arranged on the work top. She found herself smiling for a second time, touched by this action of Ben’s as she reached out to select the few items she might need to remove the diagnostic equipment. She hadn’t been the one to arrange the workspace and Ben had been the last down here, cleaning out a component from the moisture vaporator a few days ago when it had become clogged with that ubiquitous sand. The bench was spotless though she noted the he had collected the sand in one of the smaller bowls from the kitchen, which at least explained the whereabouts of that particular dish, though not why Ben had decided to keep the sand.

As her hand hovered over a wrench she felt a strange rush and could almost feel him there with her, carefully considering where _she_ would like each tool to be based on its use. It was such a simple gesture but one that she appreciated nonetheless.

Having made her selections she tucked the tools into various pockets and turned to head back up stairs. Just as she stepped on the first tread she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, and, for a brief moment her vision swam and as it returned she fancied she saw a cloaked figure out of the corner of her eye by the workbench. She shook her her in a mixture of disbelief and refusal. As if to disabused of of that last feeling she thought she heard a voice, though it was so faint it could have just as easily been a solitary gust of wind or her imagination.

‘…gone…’

 _Well that’s meaningful,_ she thought to herself as she made her way back up the narrow flight. If the Force, cosmic or otherwise, was going to start intruding again it would be helpful if it was with something more than single words and vague, or upsetting apparitions.

She emerged from the basement to find Ari’li waiting for her, hopping from one foot to another. Spoon had appeared from whichever nook he had spent the night and was bouncing around her ankles, seemingly annoyed to have missed out on the prospect of a fruit breakfast, or indeed a meal of any kind.

With a surge of something akin to stubbornness Rey strode straight for the door “Right then, let’s do this thing. It might take a while to get everything out of the ship. I’m not entirely sure how it’s wired in.”

They exited the house sans Porg. Clearly Spoon still harboured a certain amount of resentment at having been left in the ship over night then when they had first arrived and appeared to be eager to avoid it happening again. The small squat bird gave an affronted squawk before waddling back towards the kitchen. Rey hoped he wouldn’t make a too much of racket and wake Ben.

 

————

 

In the nearly two years that they had owned the Orphan, Rey hadn’t had much call to investigate the Astromech Bay. Since they didn’t have a dedicated droid for the ship it had initially been somewhat surplus to requirements but they had opted to keep it just in case. On the few occasions that Artoo had accompanied them in the last few months before they had left Yavin he had shown no interest in it, instead preferring to loiter in a corner at the back of the cockpit.

It was a fairly cramped compartment, similar in size to the ‘guest suite’ opposite. Besides a small, portable, drawer unit which held an array of cleaning picks and other assorted tools it contained compact charging station and diagnostic computer set up. Luckily it appeared that both could units could be removed without having to take half the ship apart to do so. Rey said a silent prayer in thanks to the designers of modular systems who had easy upgrades in mind.

That being said it would take some time and would be fiddly work to properly uninstall the components.

The only stumbling block she could see now was the question of powering it all once they got it back to the house. Rey couldn’t believe they had left Yavin without a portable charging unit for Artoo. What had they been thinking? The house solar array as it was at the moment probably would not be able to supply power to the charging station and the diagnostic computer at the same as the appliances and other unseen systems around the house. Another trip to Anchorhead or Bestine might be called for to get another panel and possibly a transformer as well.

Rey stood up from where she had been crouched down looking over the wiring chart she had found in the drawer unit. The blood suddenly rushed away from her head and her vision swam in a very disconcerting fashion, she wobbled for a moment before she managed to steady herself.

“Oof” She gasped as she leant against the bulkhead while everything around her slowly returned to normal.

“Are you ok?” Ari’li asked as she reached out held on to her arm to help her up.

“Yes, I just stood up a bit too quickly. Well the good news is that I don’t think it’s going to be too difficult to get this lot uninstalled.”

“And the bad news?”

“It might table a while. And you may get bored holding a torch for me. Which you will need to fetch from maintenance bay.”

“I don’t mind. Why do I need to get a torch?”

“I’m going to need to shut down the power system, or at least isolate it before I start pulling equipment. I don’t particularly fancy being electrocuted. And no power, means no onboard lighting.”

“Oh, ok. Important safety tip, avoid getting fried, got it! I’ll go get a torch then. Anything else I should get?”

“No, that should be all.”

Rey followed Ari’li out, the door sliding closed behind her. She was half way to the ship’s power plant when she turned, mentally kicking herself, really where was her brain these days? She retraced her steps to the astromech bay and hit the door release and then the override to prevent it from closing again after her.

 

Rey located the breaker switch and after a bit of coaxing, and colourful, encouraging language muttered under her breath managed to push it down. The low hum she had become so accustomed to, to the point of not noticing it at all, was suddenly conspicuous by its absence. She made her way back to the astromech bay, where Ari’li was waiting, torch in hand.

“It’s strange in here without the power on.”

“It _is_ a bit unnerving.” Rey agreed. “It’s even worse where you are in space, and drifting.” She added.

“You’ve done this kind of thing in space?”

“Sort of, just the once. For a mission. I can’t say I enjoyed it much.”

That was something of an understatement. The mission in question still, even now a few months later, filled Rey with unease whenever she thought back to it. She had been so engrossed in trying to get enough key systems back on line that she hadn’t had the time to truly contemplate how close death they had come. The full realisation came a day or so later, ruining what had otherwise promised to be a relaxing break. Her mood had been on a downwards trajectory for months afterwards and didn’t really picked up until their final mission to Canto Bight, and the promise of a new chapter in their lives finally materialising.

The slow recollection of the panic and frustration of that day made her stomach turn. For a moment she felt as if she were about to be violently ill. She closed her eyes tightly and forced herself to think about anything but those few hours, her mind fixating instead on Ben’s prone, sleeping form back in the house, and those lips, and that smile…

 

 

“Rey! Hey, Rey!” Ari’li voice recalled her.

“Thinking about him again?” The younger girl enquired, her head tipped to one side, one brow raised.

“What?”

“You always get that look on your face when you are thinking about Ben. It would be sweet if it weren’t so… nauseating” She teased, her crimson eyes twinkling.

Rey grinned, the bridge of her nose scrunching up in the way that Ari’li had come to realise was a trademark of Rey’s most heartfelt smiles.

Ari’li rolled her eyes. She recalled when she first had meet Rey and Ben, when they had endlessly bickered and needled each other and, despite all their protestations to the contrary, it was just a plain that they were bonded in some fashion. She couldn’t decide if she preferred them like that or as they were now.

“Oh, just you wait until you find someone who makes _you_ look like an idiot when you think about them.” Rey said with a laugh as she got down to work.

“That is _never_ going to happen!” Ari’li stated with no little finality.

“Finding someone or looking like an idiot.”

Ari’li shrugged, “I haven’t decided yet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge shout out to the wonderful authors I've been chatting to on Tumblr! You have been, and continue to the the best!
> 
> Check out my tumblr at the completely unimaginative [alicestill](http://alicestill.tumblr.com) I'm trying to post more fic rec of the fantastic pieces I've been reading while this chapter has been tricksy.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [tumblr](http://alicestill.tumblr.com) feel free to drop by and say hi!
> 
> Updates to this work are likely to be sporadic over the next few months as school holidays kick in soon and work project deadlines loom. But I have the whole piece roughly planned out, and I will be trying to post some updates to tumblr.
> 
> Inspiration for the gifts can be found [here ](https://www.pinterest.co.uk/sunbug1138/pftge/chapter-4/). The vase is Lalique and the scarf in the style of Fortuny.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [After Dinner... Truffles?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13551648) by [sunbug1138](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunbug1138/pseuds/sunbug1138)




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